Switched: Eva
by Digital Dragon Productions
Summary: Wishes are tricky things. Thanks to a botched one by Nabiki everybody now thinks he's Ranma Ikari, the abused cello loving son of a meglomanic. Conversely Shinji Saotome has just become the most engaged martial artist loving son of a panda. This is a slightly different take on Ranma and Shinji gets switched by a wish.
1. Prologue

So this is another one of those stories I worked on with Matdeception and a few others on anime addventure. I can't claim anything except the paper this is printed on . . . yes, I know you're reading this online. Also, There is another crack fic version of the Switching Places Evangelion by Greyff on this site. It's definitely worth checking out. This is a slightly, only just slightly, more serious attempt at the story.

* * *

Stop me if you've heard this before. So a martial artist, a blond, and a magic lamp walk into a dojo…. except magic lamps can't walk. Wait, let me start again.

So it all started with a major magical artifact that belonged in Husaquahr, the world of magic beyond the Sea of Dreams. Throckmorton P. Ruddygore, master sorcerer, needed to get rid of a powerful item to save his world, the cursed wishing Lamp of Lakash.

In his mind, the only way to accomplish that was to wish it away. He wished it far into the universe and thought it lost for all time. Funny thing is that the universe is a huge place, but not huge enough for a certain good natured, if trouble prone, blond Galaxy Police officer named Mihoshi who somehow ended up meeting with an even more troubled cursed martial artist as the djinn of the cursed lamp.

The djinn just appeared and offered him, Ranma Saotome, a wish. Only one. He knew what he wanted to wish for, but the words froze as he opened his mouth. It wasn't that he didn't trust her. He was desperate enough and seen enough that he was willing to take a lot at face value. He just couldn't physical say his wish. Him, the brave martial artist was afraid to speak. He knew what he wanted, but his past way with words and wishes never came to a good end.

Thanks to Kuno's wish he still couldn't completely get rid of that statue of their 'first date'. It was buried in the backyard, but any attempts to discard the homely thing would lead it coming back in the strangest fashion. He once attempted to destroy it, but let's say the mental and physical strain wasn't worth a second go at it. (Let's just say it involved a sudden visit from his mother with a portfolio of photos, a series of omiai and, yes, Tatewaki was involved.)

He didn't like it, but he couldn't think of any other solution then this. The longer he delayed, the greater the chance some unlikely mishap would lead to the loss of his one chance of being normal again. He swallowed his pride and went to the smartest person he knew. (Who knows what happened to Dr. Tofu at this point of the manga!)

* * *

"I can have the wish?" Nabiki asked, almost distractedly as she considered this. Not that she really believed that it would actually happen, but if it were, then the wish could be viewed as a sort of legal contract. Wording would have to be very exact.

"Yes," Mihoshi said. "I am to give three people around whom chaos swirls a wish before I'm freed. Or someone can wish to be a djinn in which case I get replaced. After here I go to someplace called the Hinata House and give a wish to someone named Keitaro Urashima who has even worse girl troubles than Mister Saotome here!"

"Hmmm," said Nabiki distractedly. "I think I've got it." 'Yeah, I got that this is probably some new fiancée trying a different angle to get at the naïve guest at her home.'

"You do?" Ranma asked eagerly. "Neveh gunna be a girl again!"

"No, listen. Your curse isn't the worst of your problems by a long shot," indicated Nabiki as she pointed at her manga collection. "Nor is it the worst thing that could happen. These people have real world changing problems. What if I were to wish that you were exchanged with one of the characters from one of my manga? Think you could deal with what goes on there?"

"Granted. Well, it's been nice, gotta go!"

Nabiki snapped out of her distraction as the girl was surrounded by a glow and she realized this _was_ for real. "HEY WAIT! That wasn't... oh crud."

As the very real wish went into effect, Ranma Saotome vanished, being exchanged with a very different person.

Nabiki looked at the manga she was pointing at and the person in front of her and went pale. "Ranma is so screwed."

"Oh," Mihoshi reappeared floating near the ceiling, "the djinn board says that I have to read this warning to you." She was holding a long scroll that went down to floor. Tiny glasses appeared on her face as she peered at the scroll. "It says that the person arriving will be viewed as if the real Ranma was here no matter how different that person may look or act. A bunch of stuff about them still expecting the same as before unless forcibly confronted with the difference. Except you, of course, since you made the wish. Ah, here is an important one about the outcome of your wish. If either should die of unnatural causes as a result of your wish then it would count very badly against your immortal soul which is already slightly on the bad side and something about being punished for all eternity. That's it for now. I'll be back in a bit once I get Ranma settled."

"Heck, I'm so screwed."


	2. Warning may lead to depression

Out of all the assorted manga Nabiki had managed to collect in time, one series in particular stood out like a shining star to Mihoshi. A tale so filled with drama, with angst and possibilities, all of which came to an end that left the ditzy djinn crying. The story had been filled with so much possibility, with so much hope, it was sad the way no one could do anything to stop the way things had gone.

The 'hero' tried to hold on, tried so hard, but trying could only get him so far. In the end, all his attempts, everything, failed him, and that was the end of the world as everyone knew it. That was the End of everything that was, or could ever be. The terms of the wish weren't going to be easy to fulfill, but she had a job to do and aimed to do it.

* * *

Shinji stared up the quiet, and lonely streets. Weird. Where was everyone? Shaking that thought to the side, the scrawny little kid approached a nearby phone. After fishing the number out of his pocket, he made a call.

The world shifted.

* * *

"The number you are dialing is currently busy, please try again later." Ranma blinked, only idly hearing the words as he immediately took notice of his surroundings. Where the hell was he anyway? Dropping the phone, he turned and gave the empty street a long, long look. Nothing. A ghost town maybe? Nah, that didn't make much sense.

He looked down at his shoes, frowning. These weren't his shoes. What the hell was going on anyway? He blinked, noticing for the first time the picture in his hand. Flipping it over, he quickly examined the photo. Ignoring the rather lewd comments written across it, he focused on the woman. There was something eerily familiar about her, it was just on the tip of his tongue.

"Oh! Ranma!" Mihoshi appeared, smiling brightly. "As per the wording of the wish, you've been exchanged with a character from one her manga! Isn't that neat?" she made it sound like it was the best thing that could ever happened to him.

"Heheh." he scratched the back of his neck, nervously. "Uh, just which.. uh.. manga wasn't it?" he just had a bad feeling about this.

Mihoshi blinked, "Oh!" she frowned in concentration, tapping her chin. "Oh nuts, I had the name a moment ago! What was it?" she almost looked ready to cry.

Ranma tuned her when the ground started shaking. It wasn't an Earth Quake, as the rumbling wasn't a continuous thing, but evenly spaced out. He blinked as Mihoshi's voice was drowned out by rather large jet engines. That feeling of familiarity rose up with him again, like he had seen this before. When a rather large green figure emerged from the towering buildings, he whimpered, "Evangelion..."

Mihoshi snapped her fingers, "That's it!" she blinked as the rapid sound of guns blazing pretty much made any attempt at communication null and void. Waving her hand, the sound immediately ceased, even as the Angel started destroying the aircraft. "Now, before I let you run off and have fun.."

"FUN!?" Ranma stared at her as if she had grown a second head. "What kinda fun is this!? I don't wanna go through all the hell Shinji did! How's this any different from where I came from!?"

Mihoshi smiled cheerfully, "Well, there's giant robo to pilot, monsters to slay, a world to save. If that's not fun, I don't know what is."

"You ever read the series?" Ranma deadpanned.

"Sure did!" she chirruped in reply, "Now! As per the wording of the wish, you've switched places with Shinji Ikari of this world. Had to work a little magic, but I think everything's in order. You were born Ranma Ikari, your life pretty much following what Shinji's life would have. Whole abandonment mumbo jumbo, living with your uncle, enjoying the cello, all that good stuff."

Ranma sat down on the curb and wallowed about how life was unfair.

"The Djinn debated about de-aging you, but we thought it was too cliché and not nearly as fun. Just tell everyone you had a recent growth spurt.."

Maybe if he just let that big green dork step on him right now, his pain would end?

"Had to take a small bit of Shinji's soul and stuff it into you, it's the only way his mother could recognize you.."

Would seppuku really have been so bad?

"Well, if there's nothing else, I'll be going now! Shinji needs a briefing, see ya!" the ditzy djinn blew up in a cloud of sparkling dust, leaving him to a fate just slightly worse than death.

Ranma gazed tiredly as a blue car zoomed up along the curb, the woman he realized was Misato Katsuragi opening the door.

Maybe if didn't say anything, or move, she wouldn't see him?

"Did I keep you waiting?" she said with a smile, as if the rampaging battle behind them wasn't even happening. Ranma gave the woman a half lidded glare. "Ranma." Misato hurriedly waved for him to get in, "Hurry! The Angel's coming!"

"What the hell!" he yelled, before raising his arm and extending his middle finger to the heavens, "You bastards! WHY ME! WHY ALWAYS ME!"

She really didn't have time to spare, "RANMA! GET IN THE CAR NOW!"

"Yeah, yeah!" the guy, eer boy replied flippantly, climbing into the car. "I'm sooo lookin forward to getting mind fucked. Yep yep!" he replied cheerfully.

Misato really didn't hear what he had said, far too busy with peeling out just in time to dodge the giant green foot of the Angel before it crushed her like a pancake. Slamming the transmission into gear, her tires squealing and leaving tire marks as she took off down the road, expertly dodging debris from the toppled light poles and crushed buildings.

* * *

"Target is still intact, resuming route towards Tokyo-3 as before!" an aid reported the situation.

"Conventional weapons ineffective, our Air force has no effect!" another reported.

"This is war!" one of the UN commanders scowled, "Mobilize all divisions at Atsugi and Iruma Bases to the battle!"

"Don't hold back!" another of the three UN commanders slammed his fist on the table, "Destroy the target at any cost!"

The screen depicting the battle showed the assorted ships moving into a V formation shortly before unleashing their payloads against the Angel, explosions erupting across his form in a rather sick impersonation of a Christmas Tree before its eyes flared brightly, a huge explosion encompassing the screen for a brief moment.

"Missiles have no effect!"

"Why!?" the second commander looked shocked, "That had to be a direct hit!"

"The tank battalion was totally destroyed. Guided missiles, guns, and bombs have no effect on it..." the first commander spoke in a slow, unbelievable tone. How could this be happening!? Why weren't their weapons having any effect on this monster?! What was it going to take to destroy it?

"Useless! With this type of fire power, we'll get nowhere!"

* * *

Gendo watched the proceedings, a silent figure overlooking the UN's desperate, if ultimately futile efforts to destroy that which they can't comprehend. When were they going to realize he was the only option they had left? They were just wasting time..

Fuyutsuki whispered, "As we thought, it's using an AT field."

Gendo dramatically sighed, "Yes. Conventional weapons have no effect against that." he couldn't help but smirk.

* * *

The third, and as of yet unspoken commander of the UN forces picked up a blood red phone just as it began ringing. "Yes sir, I'll employ that as previously arranged," he hung up the phone, "Prepare to drop the N2."

The other commands nodded grimly, giving the appropriate orders.

* * *

"Course, I can't figure out which is worse, meeting that German chick or gettin absorbed by a four hundred foot behemoth with the soul of that spineless dork's freaken mother in it!" Ranma ranted.

Misato had long ago decided everything the guy, eer, boy was saying had to be related to the shock of seeing an Angel up close and personal. She spared the battle in the distance a glance, before slamming on the breaks, her car screeching to a halt. She half expected the boy to cry about her horrible driving skills..

"If that gay bastard hits on me, I'll freaken kill em, giant robo or no!"

'Weird kid.' Misato rolled her window down, grabbing a pair of binoculars. "What are they doing...," A sick realization came to her as the aircraft broke away from the target and began booking, a distinct whine of a cruise missile drop system reaching her straining ears. "There using a N2?!" she turned towards Ranma while screaming "GET DOWN!" Only Ranma wasn't there.

"DO YER WORSE YOU BASTARDS!"

Misato turned around just in time to see the N2 mine go off, Ranma standing at the ledge overlooking the gigantic explosion with his middle finger extended to the heavens.

And then the shock wave hit them.

* * *

"N2 detonation confirmed." one of their aids reported.

"Yes! We did it!" the first commander cheered, a manic glint in his eye.

The third commander remained as silent as he had been for the majority of the confrontation, mimicking Gendo Ikari's hand gesture as he watched the screen turn bright white.

"Heh." the second commander sneered, "Sorry we didn't leave you anything." he shot to the unmoving Gendo and Fuyutsuki.

* * *

Misato hissed, her leg flaring with pain as she pulled herself out of her overturned car. It wasn't broken, a fact she was very, very grateful for. Just banged it wrong when the car went flying. However, her nerves were shot, worry evident for the Third child who didn't have the luxury of a car to take the brunt of the shockwave.

Worry gripping her chest, she frantically looked around for any sign of the boy. Heck, she was willing to settle on a blood stain at that point. She could hear it now. "You killed the commanders son?!" Oh yeah, today was going to be a good day.

When a pile of rocks behind her started shifting, an annoyed groan reaching her senses, she reflexively brought her hand to her hand gun, without pulling it out. It was a sickening sight, watching a boy struggle up out of the ground like a zombie coming alive, that was best she could come up with to describe the action.

Ranma winced, rubbing his bleeding elbow. Okay, so maybe he had hoped this was all a bad, bad dream. Feeling the pain of crashing into a mountain wall, with said mountain wall burying him under a ton of rocks seemingly out of spite, well, it drove home the fact this wasn't a dream. "I hate my life." he moped.

"Ranma!" Misato scowled, grabbing the guy, eer, boy by the shoulders and shaking him viciously, "What the hell is wrong with you! You could have been killed back there!"

He gave her a half lidded glare, "How's that any different from any other day?"

"What the hell does that mean?!" Misato blinked. What was wrong with this kid! He acted like surviving that had been god's cruel joke of the day!

"Forget it." he snapped, breaking away and walking to the car. Let's just get this over with. "Here's where ya go, "Ranma! Help me push over the car!" right?" Misato nodded, tentatively. "Pfeh." Ranma jumped up, performing a snap kick that rocketed the car off it's side, damn near breaking the axels when it landed on it's tires. "Ow!" Ranma hissed, rubbing his now twice bruised foot, "Damn it!" he limped around, snarling angrily.

Misato just sweat dropped.

* * *

"Confirm. Has the target been destroyed?" The silent commander broached the question, putting out his cigarette.

"It can't be confirmed due to radio wave disruption." one of their aids explained.

"Nothing could survive a N2 detonation. It's dead." the first commander smirked, confidently.

"Sensors are coming back online."

"Wh.. what the!?" their aids stammered in shock, "Energy reaction detected at the core of the explosion!"

His smirk dying a slow, painful death, the commander stammered in shock, "What?!"

"Visual Image restored!"

The sight of the Angel still standing was like a blow, a cut that penetrated deeply into their minds. They had thrown everything they had at it, even the N2, their most deadly, non-nuclear, weapon to date. Even now, they could see the things wounds pulsing as the creature stood still, a sure sign it was alive, and worse it was regenerating.

The silent commander leaned back in his chair, looking suddenly very old, very tired. "Our trump card..."

* * *

Misato shifted gears, the car zooming down the road as she pulled out a cell phone. Today couldn't get any worse! First the Angels come back, she's late picking up the Commanders kid, and the kid just had to be a compulsive depressive! That had to be it. Great, the commanders son had a mental disorder. What luck.

"Captain Katsuragi here, approaching with the package. I'll need a train care prepared to take us straight to HQ." she blinked, rolling her eyes, "He's the commanders son, so yeah, an express would be nice." she bit out sarcastically, then winced as the person on the other end of the phone said something. "Uh.. yeah.. it's my responsibility." Lovely! "I said I'd pick him up, I'll deal with it!" she slammed the phone shut rather then wait for a retort.

Ranma eyed the girl with a half lidded glare. If things went as he remembered, she was gonna go off into a mental tirade about how much her life sucks. Pfft. She had it easy, as far as he cared.

Life sucked. First she just haaaad to volunteer to pick up the commanders son, which wouldn't have been a big deal normally, right? Well you'd be wrong, dead wrong. As if the gods had decided to mock her, an Angel appeared not five miles from where she was suppose to pick up the kid.

A dubious affair, but she felt she handled the pick up just fine. Only, she didn't remember seeing in the kid's dossier that he was a nut case! The guy, eer boy, put the D in depression. Life sucked, and sucked bad. She could see it now, arriving at HQ she'd be set upon by the commander for 'hurting' his son. Pfft, like a cold hearted bastard like that could ever really care.

"Yeah yeah, boo hoo, life's hard and it sucks. Oh me, oh my, car payments! My favorite dress! Life's so hard!" Ranma rolled his eyes flippantly as he saw her becoming a bit more depressed.

That just served to remind her of the fact her car was wreaked, her favorite dress was ruined, and life did indeed suck. She gritted her teeth, "Ranma…shut up." she snapped.

* * *

Gendo stood before the three commands, hands behind his back with a hard and cold expression present. The silent commander watched the man for a time, as if he was debating something. Eventually he did speak, "It's evident conventional weapons have no effect against these.. monsters." he sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly, "The UN has decided to give you control of this operation, and all following operations dealing with the Angel menace until such time as they deem it no longer necessary."

"I understand." Gendo nodded, careful to hide the excitement he felt within him at that point. He had worked long, and hard to reach this point. Nothing would stop him now.

The silent commander grunted, putting out his cigarette as he eyed the man, seriously. "Are you sure victory can be met?"

Gendo pushed his glasses up, nodding. "It's what NERV was created for."

He grunted, leaning back in his chair. "We expect much from you." before the podium he and his other commanders lowered into the ground, leaving Gendo and his lacky Fuyutsuki alone in the command center.

"The target is dormant, currently in a state of regeneration." one of the aids informed them.

"The present effective rate of interception is 7.5%." Another aid said, rather morbidly.

"The UN Troops won't be able to help us, Ikari." Fuyutsuki grimaced, eyeing his colleague. "What are you going do to now?"

Gendo smirked, turning around and heading for the exit. His words were like a blow to his second in command, it's weight heavy on the older man's heart. "I'll activate Unit One."

"Unit one?" Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow, curiously. "We don't have a suitable pilot."

"By the time we reach NERV, we will." Gendo responded cryptically, with a smirk.

* * *

Ranma spared his surroundings an entirely bored look. It hadn't been long since Misato had driven them into some kind of train platform for her car. He only dimly remembered this part from the Anime, but he guessed it really didn't matter anyone. He was annoyed, upset, and rather unpredictable right now and he knew it. Anyone would be upset to find themselves in this type of situation, he figured.

Misato snapped her fingers, as if she just remembered something. Digging around the back seat, she asked, "Ranma! I nearly forgot, did your father send you an ID?"

He gazed at her with a half lidded glare, "No."

She stopped suddenly, a large binder in her hands, and shot him a look. "What?"

"You deaf?" He sighed, shaking his head. Just play along Ranma. Yeah, just wait till you get yer hands on a giant robo then show everyone they couldn't get away with this shit. "He sent me some stupid note, sayin 'Come'. I used it as toilet paper after readin' it, that a problem?"

Misato grimaced. Wow. This kid must really hate his father. "Ah.." hesitantly, she shrugged, settling back in her seat and handing the binder to the boy. "Here, it's the standard NERV welcome information packet. You'll need to know all that since you'll be working for us."

Ranma gave the book a disdainful look, before shrugging and rolling the window down.

"Something wrong?" Was it stuffy in here? She didn't think so, but the kid could be so random at times she didn't know what to think.

"Nope." he replied casually, before flinging the book out the window where it fell between the cars, getting ripped up in the railing underneath. "There, all done."

Misato gawked, "What?! What the hell's wrong with you!"

"You don't want me to answer that." He deadpanned, rolling his window up and just daring her to say something more on the matter.

She gritted her teeth, instinctually gripping her steering wheel tightly as she struggled to contain her anger over his latest stunt. Calm down Katsuragi! Just get him to HQ, then he'll be someone else's problem! Yeah, she was looking forward to that.

"Oh hey, look, a Geo Front." he twirled his finger in the air in a rather flippant gesture of not really giving a damn. "Whoop-di-doo."

"Yeah..." Misato wondered if having a beer on duty was a bad thing. She was perfectly happy to let the rest of their time together be one of silence.

Ranma, on the other hand, wasn't. He snapped his fingers, as if remembering something. "Oh yeah! Hey Misato!"

"What now?" she groaned, tiredly resting her head against the steering wheel.

"Think we can skip the whole getting lost thing? Y'know, call yer little friend to get us instead of wanderin around like baka's?"

Misato twitched.

* * *

"See, hate to say I told ya so but.." he shrugged, flipping a yen piece in sheer boredom. ".. I told ya so."

Misato twitched. An hour, a whole hour of being stuck with the annoying brat. Her pride had been tested at first, she wouldn't give up and admit that she was lost, but now she just didn't give a shit. Anything was worth the agony if it meant she got away from this punk.

She picked up a phone and made a call. Shortly after hanging up, the PA system crackled to life.

"Would Chief of Project E at section 1 of the Technical Department, Dr. Akagi Ritsuko. Dr. Akagi Ritsuko please contact Captain Katsuragi Misato at Section 1 of Operations Department immediately."

* * *

Tearing off her scuba mask, Ritusko looked up just as the message repeated itself. "She's lost again?" she rolled her eyes. Honestly, how the heck did that girl get a job here of all places. She couldn't find her way out of a paper bag!

* * *

"We there yet?"

"No."

"We there yet?"

Misato gritted her teeth, "No, now stop asking."

"Fine fine." Ranma sighed, tiredly leaning against the back of the elevator they were in. A whole three seconds passed before he lost his patience, "Are we there yet?"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! No! We aren't there! At this rate I'll die of old age before we get there. Shut. UP!" the woman seethed, fists gripped into tight little fists angrily.

"Geesh, what crawled up your ass and died." Ranma rubbed his nose, tiredly, completely ignorant of the monumental test of will he was putting on the older woman. She was so close, so damn close to snapping it wasn't even funny.

Thankfully, something came and saved him from a fate worse then death. With a soft chime, the elevator doors opened up revealing a pretty woman with hair dyed blond, if the brown roots were any indication. The woman stepped in, stepping precariously close to Misato, the other woman stepping back while chuckling nervously. "Hehe.. hi Ritsuko.."

"Captain Katsuragi." The woman snapped, a little upset. "Certainly you are aware of our current situation? We're short on hands and time, we do not need to waste valuable resources in this way."

"Heh.. hehe." she twiddled her thumbs, rather embarrassed, "Sorry.."

Ritsuko sighed, waving the matter off before glancing at Ranma. "Is this him?" She was a little off kilter. She had been expecting a 14 year old boy, some one young and impressionable, not this teenager. She debated momentarily if some mistake had been made, but quickly cut off that line of thinking.

"Hard to believe, huh?" Misato shot the boy a glance, before nodding. "But it is him, the third child reported by the Murdock report."

Ritsuko nodded at the boy respectfully, "Nice to meet you."

Ranma grunted, "Yeah, yeah. Ditto. Hey.." he hmmed, eying the two women weirdly, "Can I ask you somethin'?"

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow curiously. From what she remembered reading from the report, Ranma was a rather shy child. She only idly noticed Misato groaning and face palming as she replied, "Yes."

He nodded, eyeing the two women again, "Are you two.. lesbians?"

Misato stiffened. Oh hell no he did not just ask that.

Ritsuko just stared.

He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck nervously, "Cause, it's okay if you are, y'know? Just, y'know, seems like it with the way you two practically hugged back there, and, uh..." he shrugged, deadpanning, "I'm a horny 14 year old boy who just wants to know, okay?" he lied smoothly.

Ritsuko twitched.

* * *

Gendo spared the command center a long, long look. It had taken a lot of work, and so much effort on the parts of all, but they had done it. They had finally been given command to do what they had to do to destroy the Angels, and 'prevent' Third impact. He was giddy, it was only a matter of time now. He sighed, berating himself for letting himself even get that riled up over everything. There was still much to do, so many variables that could go wrong with this plan.

"It's time, old friend."

Gendo gave Fuyutsuki a nod, as he stepped up on a platform and lifted away.

'They'll meet after three years.." Fuyutsuki watched as Gendo left. He didn't know what to expect from this meeting, he just hoped Gendo didn't do something he'd regret later. He was left with no more time to ponder such things as one of the command crew exclaimed. "Sir! The target's begun to move again."

So this was it. He nodded, "Red alert, all personnel to battle stations." he barked.

* * *

Ranma rubbed his cheeks, mumbling about how two repressed lesbians didn't need to slap him twice to get their points across. He mused that it was possible that one fan theory might, just might be wrong. He was thusly ignored by both women, which he really didn't care. Busying himself with watching the purple container of ooze as the elevator rose, he tried to ignore the conversation taking place around him.

Misato stood stone still, arms akimbo, with a nervous twitch in her eye. How dare that boy even suggest such a thing! She didn't care if he was fourteen, it was easy to ignore that fact since he looked more like a teenager then a little boy.

The PA crackled to life, "RED ALERT! RED ALERT! ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATION!"

"You hear that?" Misato asked redundantly.

Ristuko had long since put the boys tactless question out of her mind, she had more important things to think about. At times like this, she really wondered why Misato had to always state the obvious. "Yes, well, we are at a state of war."

"How's Rei?" Misato asked, nervously. The angels had returned, and if NERV had been given command of the operation it meant the UN forces had failed, and it was time to play their trump card. The problem, which really worried her, was that their only pilot was currently down with serious injuries. She didn't hold a doubt in her mind, if they tried to use Rei as she was the likely hood of her surviving the encounter was minimal at best.

"She's fine. Unit 00 is still frozen within Cryostasis."

Misato frowned, "Unit One?"

"Obviously." the doctor clucked her tongue, "It's equipped with the B type equipment, and is currently in the process of being unfrozen."

"Does it even work?" she asked, hesitantly. "I heard it's never activated yet."

"The possibility of Unit One activating is 0.000000009. We call it the 09-system." the doctor shrugged.

"Ah, as in no chance in hell?"

"That would be the o-ni system." Ritsuko sighed, rubbing her head tiredly. "Don't be so depressing. It doesn't mean it won't work."

Misato snorted.

* * *

Ranma had to stop himself from squealing like a little girl when the lights went out. Not that he was scared, far from it, but he figured if he kept acting like a total ass he'd just piss everyone off, then he'd be right where he was before, well, if you add the very real possibility he'd die before this was all over. Yep yep, what fun! Thanks Mihoshi.. you ditz.

The lights came back on a few moments later, and he came face to face with a gigantic purple monstrosity. He gulped, a little nervous to be this close to an actual Evangelion. He had been able to play it off as no big deal earlier, but now that he was here, facing the thing... well, he was a tad bit nervous.

He flipped his coin and smiled cheerfully. This was gonna be fun fun fun.

"Did you have a chance to read the manual, Ranma?"

"Manual?" he blinked, eyeing the doctor. When Misato face palmed, remembrance kicked in. "Oh, yeah, that thing." he shrugged, "Threw it out the window."

Ritsuko blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You deaf?" he sighed, shaking his head tiredly. "I. Threw. It. Out. The..."

"I heard you!" the doctor snapped, shaking her head in annoyance. This child was really something else.

Misato snickered, elbowing her friend.

She shot the woman a glare, before turning back on the boy. "Fine." she motioned to the Eva, "This is the Multi-purpose Humanoid Fighting Machine, Code named EVANGELION, which humanity developed as a final defense against the extra-terrestrial threat code named, Angel.

Ranma hmmed, before shrugging his shoulders, "This what the old man's been working on?"

"Correct."

He looked up at the man overhead, protectively standing behind what looked like a large piece of Plexiglas. Ranma rolled his eyes. 'Yep, right on time.' "Sup pop."

Gendo frowned, just a little at that, but quickly shook his sudden apprehension off. "Dr. Akagi, prepare Unit One for Combat."

Misato blinked, "What? But sir! Rei can't pilot it, she's too injured! We have no pilots!"

"One's just been delivered." Gendo answered mechanically.

The woman froze. No way, no way was he really considering letting Ranma of all people into one of those things. Glancing at the boy, who returned her look with a cheerful smile, before she snapped, "You can't be serious! There's no time to synchronize the Eva! It took Rei seven months to sync with hers! He wouldn't have a chance out there!"

"We're only expecting him to take a seat." Ritsuko explained seriously, "We can't expect more from him than that."

"But.."

"At present.." Ritsuko continued, cutting off Misato's retort, "The interception of the Angel is our top priority! Even with the remote possibility he can successfully sync with the Eva, we have to take that chance. If we fail now, the whole of Humanity could be lost."

Misato was about to say something when the installation suddenly shook violently, knocking most everyone but Ranma off their feet.

* * *

"Status Report."

Fuyutsuki depressed the button, "The Angel's reached the City. He's laying concentrated fire directly above our position." he gritted his teeth, "I think he knows we're down here."

* * *

Gendo frowned, staring directly at his son. "Will you pilot it?". He was half expecting his son to be crying by this point, but the fact he just stood there with a silly grin on his face seriously unnerved him.

Ranma clucked his tongue, flipping his yen piece. "Well, maybe." he coughed, "Okay. Before I get into any giant robo's, there's just one thing I wanna say to all of ya."

"And that is?" who was he to complain? If his son just wanted to say something before going off to battle, he wasn't going to stop him.

He caught the coin tightly in his grip, before taking aim at his 'father'. Everyone watched in morbid fascination as he reared back and launched the little thing, their jaws dropping in shock as the little yen piece slammed into the plexiglass protecting their commander, digging deeply into the surface.

Gendo sweat dropped.

Misato gawked.

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow.

Ranma raised his hand to Gendo, extending his middle finger before beginning his tirade. "Fuck you!" he turned his finger to Ritsuko, "Fuck you!", Misato got it next, "Fuck you!" then some nameless engineer got it next, "You! I don't even know you, but I bet yer an asshole too! So Fuck you!" he then took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Alright, I'm done."

Gendo quickly wiped away his sweat drop as everyone else face faulted. His son was anything but a whiny pushover, that much was for damn sure.


	3. It's all about 'Instinct'

Nabiki looked over her new source of stress. Not that she had anything against Shinji. In the manga she was more a fan of Kaji or even Gendo, mainly for their manipulations and ability to get what they want no matter the cost. Shinji did well with what he was given, though, she wished that he was a little more assertive in the manga.

Mihoshi's briefing actually went really well. Big Surprise! Turns out that Shinji was a fan of a manga called Ranma ½. The comedy of the curse and multiple fiancées helped him escape from his own mundane abusive life for a few hours. He was a real fan of Ranma and his mad marital arts skills. Probably the type to pretend to throw Ki balls in the shower.

Double surprise, he shyly admitted that he was fan of hers! She heard a hesitation and with some gentle prodding found out that he liked her character better early on in the series. He said that she got more ruthless later in the manga. That she let someone almost die by taking the only parachute out of a helicopter and sabotaging theirs.

That sounded a little cold blooded even for her, but Shinji said that he had tried to kill her by crashing the copter first, then again maybe she would. That seemed more involved then she would ever care to be. Chaos was only fun if watched from a distance. A safe distance. That version of her sounded too jaded to the dangers of the place they called Nerima.

So the would be 'third child' was a fan of not only herself, but Ukyo and Kasumi too. He liked her take charge attitude, she agreed that it was one of her better traits. Kasumi, he liked her for her ability to always keep calm and domestically keep the house together. Ukyo was for her dedication to cooking, and lack of screen time. He was upset that in the Ranma RPG video games that she wasn't a playable character, but only a shop keeper. Her only line was "Don't forget about me!" He too often felt ignored and sympathized with the chef.

Oddly enough, he didn't like Shampoo's pushy attitude. She was glad he wasn't one of those teenagers that were completely ruled by hormones and increased her opinion of him quite a bit. Oh and Akane, yeah, he was scared silly of Akane's mallet and temper. Somehow she had to make sure he survived long enough that anything happening to them would no longer be considered her fault.

* * *

Ranma tapped the weird metal head links they put on his head before shoving him into the plug. It was odd watching the plug get inserted through a conveniently placed window in the terminal. "Y'know.."

"What is it, Ranma?" he heard Misato's slightly exasperated and nervous voice come up over the line.

"Nothin.. jus.. when the plug's bein inserted, it looks like a giant.."

"Shut. Up!" the woman snapped, angrily. He could hear the telltale signs of nervous laughter in the back ground, as if they found it funny, but the situation wouldn't let them just relax and go with it. He couldn't blame them, he supposed. It's not every day you see a gigantic monster rampaging through the mall.. not that he cared.

"So.." he hmmed, "What's these things do?" he tapped his headwear again.

Ritsuko's voice came up this time, "They transmit your brainwaves directly to the Evangelion in a readable form the Android can understand."

"Right..."

It was the doctors turn to sound exasperated, "They help you control the robot."

"Why didn't you jus` say that in tha` first place." he snapped.

It was then he heard Ritsuko's voice take a mean edge to it as she ordered them to, "Flood the tank."

Ranma watched, a little nervous, as a strange orange liquid began to fill the plug. He was only slightly relieved when he realized that whatever this junk was, it didn't change him into a girl. He didn't even want to think about what these nut bags were gonna do to him once they discovered that little facet of his screwed up life. He held his breath as he became completely submerged in the stuff, and just waited and waited. Then waited some more.

"Ranma! You have to empty your lungs!" Ritsuko's voice came back at a slightly higher pitch. Oh right, he forgot about that part. His Pop's sea turtle training (basically tying a giant boulder to the trainee, throwing before mentioned trainee as far as possible into the ocean and wait for them to walk back to shore) made it automatic that he would hold his breath whenever he was submerged.

Ranma wondered if he could conduct the entire battle without taking a breath. In fact, he probably could. He swam to China, a small fight in a giant robot against an untrained thug of an Angel would be no problem. He would have to cut back on the flashier moves and, of course, any pre-combat banter could not take place.

"We have to drain the tank!" Misato's voice brought him back to the present and all the communication windows crowding his screen.

"Vitals remain steady. He's just not breathing."

"Approaching the 10 minute mark."

He waved to all of them and the yelling subsided. Ranma closed his eyes and concentrated. It took an extreme force of will to overcome his training instinct and expel all the air from his lungs.

"Ranma! Why the hell did you stop breathing?!" Misato yelled in exasperation and relief.

"Dozed off. We doing this or what?" he snapped back.

"Took that better than I thought," Ritsuko's voice came back, some grudging respect present.

"Whatever." he grumbled, "What's tha` point of this stuff now?"

"The LCL, or Link Connected Liquid, acts as a supplement for your head gear, transferring vital statistics to the Evangelion that we then use to monitor your health, sync ratio, and other various odds and ends. I'm sure you don't want me to go into specifics, do you?"

"No." Ranma snapped.

* * *

Gendo listened to the com chatter as the Bridge crew busied themselves with preparations for Unit One's activation. There was something really wrong with his son. Though he didn't know it, he had people keep an eye on him, monitor his physical and mental wellbeing so when the time came to eventually bring him in, they would be able to gage his reaction and act accordingly.

The reports noted his son as being shy, somewhat cowardly, with a mental defensive mechanism of doing what he was told to get by. Sure, there was other information present, but this had been the most important in Gendo's eyes. He didn't doubt for a second that his son either hated him, or at the very least didn't like him, but if he was easily impressionable it wouldn't have mattered to him in the long run anyway.

"Fuyutsuki."

"Sir?" his second in command leaned close.

"The Third Child… does he seem, odd to you?"

The man eyed the monitors, paying careful attention to the boy. He seemed nervous, which wasn't to be unexpected given the circumstances, but he also seemed confident and strong. Everyone in command had a chance to read the boy's dossier, which from the looks of things had to have been completely fabricated, at least in regards to the boy's mental health. Where they had expected a shy, docile boy, it looked like they had gotten someone arrogant, egotistical, and a little nuts if you asked him.

"Quite." he spared the man a glance, "Second thoughts?"

Gendo waved that notion off lickety split, "No. We have no choice, I'm afraid. Find out how our information on the boy could have been tampered with."

"The Council?"

"SEELE?" Gendo frowned, it was a possibility, though remote. They didn't have a reason to move against him like this. Perhaps they had a reason not to trust him, but that wasn't enough. He knew them, at least how they operated. No, this had to be someone else. "Doubtful. Still, don't rule out any possibilities."

"Sir." Fuyutsuki nodded, stepping back and away from the other man.

* * *

"Connect the main power."

"Power connected. Initiating second contact." Aoba's fingers flew over the keyboard, "A-10 nerve connection accepted. Initiating linguistics module."

Ritsuko turned the microphone on, "Ranma, Japanese has been hardwired into all Evangelion Operations. From now on, do all your thinking in that language."

Ranma rolled his eyes, which annoyed the doctor. "Whatever."

"Status on contacts?" Ritsuko shot the question at one of the operators.

"All initial contacts are in the green. We're ready for the next stage." Maya answered back.

Ritsuko nodded, "Begin."

"Connecting Mutual power lines." Maya spared a display a look, nodding, "Mutual lines connected. Synchronization holding at 38.3%"

Ritsuko let out a relieved breath at that, "Good. How are the harmonics?"

"Harmonics well within established guidelines." Maya chattered about, excitedly, "I think it's going to work this time!"

"Geez, way to boost confidence. Why don't ya just tell me the body count while you're at it?"

"Nobody died!" Misato quickly reassured him.

"Oh, so they're just in a coma. I'll pay my respects later." Ranma deadpanned.

"No! She's awake and fine in medical!"

"On heavy meds?"

"…I think so."

"Then she's not 'fine'. Hey Pop how about you come in here instead, I have a note from Mom somewhere in here saying I can be excused from robo exercise today," Ranma said while making a big show of searching his clothes.

Ranma's sarcasm was mostly ignored though it did get a few more chuckles and a slight frown from his Pop.

Ritsuko turned to Misato, "Everything's ready."

Misato grinned, "Release the first lock bolt!"

Makoto nodded, "Releasing first lock bolt." the view screen flickered on, showing the purple android known as Unit One as a set of locks screwed themselves. "First bolt released, retracting umbilical bridge." the bridge holding the Evangelion in place pulled back as he said that, "Releasing second lock, second lock released."

"Remove the first and second binding, then cancel the first through 15th safety locks." Misato ordered.

* * *

Ranma watched with a sense of agitation as the locks that held the Evangelion in place began to pull away. He didn't understand what was going on, but he really, really started to realize how severe the situation was becoming. He was about to enter battle in a giant robo, a battle he could tell would only end in his death, or the death of the Angel. Yeesh, talk about tense.

Misato's face popped up on a screen, "Okay Ranma, we're moving you to a Catapult. In about five minutes the mission will begin, are you sure you're ready for this?"

Ranma spared her a look. "Can... can I get a few minutes to myself?" he cursed himself for sounding scared, but he really couldn't help it.

Misato blinked. That wasn't like the boy she had met earlier that day. For an instance there, he was just like any other boy his age, scared, uncertain... it was a good sign as far as she cared. "Take all the time you need, Ranma."

"Thanks."

* * *

Ritsuko double checked her readings. Everything seem to be in order for the launch. "We're ready to launch, Katsuragi."

Misato hesitantly pressed the comm switch, "Ranma? It's time."

* * *

Ranma buried his hands in his face when Misato's window faded. Focus Ranma, focus. Forget about the past, don't let the fact some ditzy djinn sent you to a place like this mess you up none. That wouldn't help anyone. He took in a deep breath, trying to calm down.

He may not want to be here, may not want to have anything to do with the people in this world, but now that Shinji was gone… did he really have a choice? He knew, mainly through his friends, how the series ended with Shinji at the helm. The kid, Kami-sama, he didn't even want to imagine what he was going through back in his old world.

He grimaced. That didn't matter anymore. Shinji had escaped this fate, and now he had to deal with this shit. "No more f'ing around Ranma. Yer the only hope for humanity… man, this is so lame." he sighed, rubbing his forehead. Life sucked.

* * *

"Ranma?"

"Yeah…," his voice came back over the intercom, slightly subdued. "Let's do it."

"Launch Cat one!"

* * *

It could sense danger. The vertical, the horizontal, it felt everything. Danger was coming, it would be required to defend itself, and nothing would impede its goal. The Angel turned down a long dark street, where it become motionless, the only movement that could be detected was in its eyes as it blinked every few seconds.

The iron plates of the street opened up, two long vertical poles shooting upwards. It could feel the danger getting closer and closer. It wouldn't be long now. It wasn't disappointed with a large purple behemoth shot out of the ground, its head snapping up as it reached the end the top. The Angel could feel the danger within the monster, past the armor, past the flesh, deep within it's very core the danger it felt did lie.

It would die.

* * *

Ranma felt a little queasy from his journey to the top. Damn those Cat's made a roller coaster look tame in its ability to upset a stomach. Argh. He shook his nausea off, eying the gigantic Angel standing a hundred or so yards away from him. He forced back a nearly overpowering fear that had been building up as the seconds went passed. He would not run away from this, he'd face the crap his life threw at him and come out on top. He would not run away. If Ranma realized his line of thought had mimicked Shinji's in the original line, he would have slammed his head against the nearest wall he could find.

"Ranma."

"Doc?"

"Just concentrate on walking for now. Picture the Eva moving in your mind, and will it forward."

"'Kay." he grunted, doing just that. A sense of exhilaration swelled up within as he literally felt the Eva step forward. It was only now, after finally commanding the Behemoth, that he realized something he had always wondered about the Evangelions. He could literally feel the Eva's fingers as a cool wind passed by, feel the slight discomfort at the end of his foot as the Eva stepped over debris left behind by the Angels repeated energy attacks. It was as if he was hotwired into the beasts nervous system, every pore underneath the armor felt like his own. It was almost as if he was out there, which weirded him out a bit.

"RANMA MOVE!" Misato's voice pierced his thoughts. Looking up, he panicked at the sight of the Angel bum rushing him. Instinct honed through years of training kicked in at that point, the Evangelion kneeling down for only a moment until it leaped upwards and over the rushing Angel. Flipping in midair, it came down to the Earth with a titanic crash, the metal and concrete beneath breaking away into a gigantic crater as it failed to hold its weight in check.

"Holy shit!" Ranma's eyes widened. He knew for a fact he hadn't mentally commanded the Eva to do that. What the hell was that all about?!

* * *

"Amazing!" Misato chirruped. She didn't even know the Eva's could do something like that!

"I detected a spike in his Sync ratio for a brief moment Dr. Akagi!" Maya stammered excitedly, shock evident.

Ritsuko practically pushed Maya away from her console, her fingers flying over the keyboard like a thing possessed as screen after screen of data flooded the monitors. "Fascinating! For a period of 0.0000003 seconds his Sync ratio jumped to seventy percent!"

"How is that possible!" Fuyutsuki demanded from up above.

* * *

Unit One whipped around sluggishly, catching sight of the Angel as it turned to face it's enemy.

"Okay ugly..." Ranma willed himself forward again, the mechanical monster slowly, painfully slow, lumbered forward. This was going to be a pain in the ass, and he knew it. The Angel seemed to stay still for a moment, as if examining the thing for something that had been present a moment before, but wasn't anymore.

"Just you wait!" Unit one took another step. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" Another step, "Kami-sama's gonna feel you getting your ass kicked!" Another step, "I hate you!"

* * *

Misato sweat dropped, "ETA until he arrives?"

"At current rate of speed, and if the Angel continues standing there, five minutes."

* * *

"Okay, this is taking too damn long." Ranma grunted, forcing his will into the Evangelion.

Unit one stopped moving, for a second it just stood there doing nothing, but slowly it's right arm began to rise, the Angel blinking at the action curiously, at least until Unit One extended its middle finger.

* * *

"He's flipping off the Angel..." Gendo blinked.

* * *

The Angel answered the gesture of good will in kind, it fired off its energy beam, a huge lance of purple energy exploding forward directly towards the lumbering Unit One. Just as it looked like the energy beam would slam into the Eva the Angel caught a black shadow leap upwards, it tracked the figure's motion through the night sky, aided by the brief luminance of the moon overhead. Raising its arms, the long spikes sticking out of its elbows began to pull back in preparation for an attack.

Ranma saw the Angel do just that, and shivered in fear. The Eva acted again without him even trying, launching him into the air out of the way of the beam of hot death, a fact that was really beginning to aggravate him. As he crashed down into the Angel, he flinched just a little as those long spikes jutting out of its elbows slammed forward, one directed at his head, the other at his left shoulder.

Unbelievable the Eva acted again under its own violation, tilting its head to the right and just barely dodging the spike that shot forward, unfortunately the second spike managed to slam into his shoulder, but not pierce the armor. Crashing on top of the Angel, he was only partially surprised to see the Angel use his forward motion to lift him up slightly, before it fired its energy lance again, blasting him back into the sky while a diagonal cross flared across the sky.

* * *

Misato spared only a moment of her time watching as Unit One crashed into an unseemly heap on a nearby mountain range, unmoving. "Damage report!'

"Upper left Torso's nerve connections shorted out, redirecting to nerve nexus A-17" Maya informed, quickly doing just that.

"Status of the Pilot?"

"Unknown, I can't get a reading inside the Plug. Sensors must have been damaged in that blast!" Makoto exclaimed.

"Unit One?"

Ritsuko grimaced, "It's still operational, but it's not receiving any brain waves from the pilot! It's like a doll whose strings have been cut!"

* * *

Ranma groaned, idly rubbing his head. Okay, that had hurt, and hurt real bad. "Misato?"

No answer.

"Figures." he shook that thought off. Honestly, he shouldn't rely on them for help. When it came time for battle, he could only count on himself. He was grateful for this moment's respite; he really needed to think about everything that had happened. Four times, four damn times the Eva acted on its own accord. He realized if everything went the way it was 'suppose' to go the fight would have been over by now. He ruefully shoved that thought away. Shinji wasn't here, he was; now it was his problem to figure out how to beat this thing and get out of it alive.

Why? Why had the Eva acted on it's on, and in the way it did. For brief instances there it felt like the Eva had been trained in Martial Arts. It knew when to jump, how to land, when to dodge. It was eerie. It was almost as if it was acting on...

Ranma suddenly got a clue. "Instinct!" which was quickly followed by an epiphany. "Course! Eva's are like giant dogs... no wait.." he frowned, "Whatever! Like beasts! Instinct! They respond to instinct!" he grinned. Well, if there was one thing he had trained most of his life in developing, it was his instinct. Now, how was he going to go about using that? He wasn't stupid; as it stood he'd get his ass handed to him ten ways from Sunday before it shoved a purple cross up his ass for all his troubles with the way things were going.

* * *

"Status on the Angel?" Misato leaned up behind Makoto, staring over his shoulder while completely oblivious of his sudden blush.

"It hadn't moved until just recently." He brought up various screens of the Angel, "I think it was waiting to see if Unit One would get back up. Since it hasn't, I think it's moving in for the kill."

"He's full of himself, isn't he." the Captain grunted. She swore if Ranma wasn't dead in that Eva, she'd kill him when he got out for scaring the hell out of all of them.

* * *

It was a long shot, he realized. Who knew what could happen if he did it, to both him and the Eva. He debated about it, agonized over it, and in the end he figured what the hell. Either it didn't work, and they all died, or it did and he lived to fight another day. Closing his eyes, Ranma felt a coldness come over his mind and emotions. Buried in ice, unobstructed by reason or doubt, he allowed his instincts to come forward.

* * *

Makoto blinked, shooting Maya a glance. "Maya?"

After typing away at the console a bit, the woman nodded, "I've rerouted the sensor feeds from the Plug!"

Misato grinned, "Can we get a visual?"

"No." Ritsuko, busy at another terminal snapped, "We're only capable of monitoring the pilots vital statistics at the moment… this is odd."

"What is the problem, Dr. Akagi." Gendo spoke up, this time.

"Everything!" The doctor frowned, "His neural connections are working at top efficiency, but his body, everything from his heart to his spleen have slowed down in operation. It's similar to entering a meditative trance, but I can't figure out why he's in this state."

"Ca-ca-captain!" Makoto exclaimed, "Unit One reactivating! These readings can't be possible." he shot Maya another look, "Maya confirm?"

"Confirmed! Dr. Akagi! The Pilots Sync ratio is fluctuating wildly!"

"What?" Ritsuko brought up another screen at her station, frowning, "How is this possible?"

"What is it?" Misato tried to look over her shoulder, and she managed to do just that, but then remembered she didn't know how to read all this mumbo jumbo. She didn't voice that thought aloud, however.

"It's fluctuating so fast it's hard to get a direct reading." the doctor gritted her teeth, "Between… seventy and eighty percent!"

"Captain!"

"What now!?"

"You're not going to believe this..." Makoto stared at the screen in awe.

"What are you...?" She looked up and saw just what was happening. "What the..."

* * *

Unit one came alive as the instincts of one boy merged with the primal fury of the beast within. Rising to its feet, the giant behemoth turned towards the Angel, its white eyes glowing with menace.

The Angel stopped, sensing the danger once again. Only this time instead of the danger being focused within the Eva, it had surrounded the Eva itself.

Rolling its neck, a sick snapping sound reverberated across the city, the Eva's mouth breaking open as if to sigh in relief. The Angel got really confused when the Eva almost casually fell into a stance, one arm raised toward it. When it gave the 'come get some' gesture, the Angel did just that.

If it was possible, Unit One smirked just as the Angel entered melee range. Faster than it had a right to, the Eva launched forward, slamming both fists into its chest and stunning the creature. Nowhere near finished, the Eva jumped up, delivering a brutal snap kick to the side of the creatures head, a loud sickening snap resounding all over the city as a spray of blood erupted from where it's face use to be. Staggering back the Angel blindly swung its arms in an attempt to ward off the four hundred feet of pissed off Eva. Not that it did it any good.

Pressing the advantage, the Eva rushed forward, ducking low under the Angel's flailing arms and burying its fist in its stomach with such force the first plowed right through its body, erupting out the other end in a spray of bloody gore that blanketed a large part of the city. Ripping its arm back out, Unit one grabbed one of its arms, twisting around and yanking hard in a throw, the Angel flying and slamming into the ground, unmoving.

* * *

Fuyutsuki clicked his tongue, "I didn't know your son knew martial arts."

"Me either," Gendo deadpanned. Watching as Unit One hung back for a bit as the Angel slowly struggled to its feet. He was angry his son hadn't pressed the advantage, but didn't let it show.

"Dr. Akagi! Unit One's AT field just deployed!" Maya exclaimed.

"About time!" Ritsuko snapped, pulling up another window before blinking, "What is that boy doing?"

"The AT field is coalescing in front of Unit One's Fists!" Makoto frowned, quickly zooming in the picture. "See?"

Misato frowned as a swirling orange particle effect became visible. Like a whirl pool, the particles seemed to be swirling in place, waiting for something. "What's this suppose to do? I didn't even know the AT Field could be use like this!"

* * *

The Angel didn't know what the hell had happened, all it knew was that the Danger had suddenly become so powerful it didn't give itself a chance in heaven of actually overcoming this obstacle. Its options were short. Escape wasn't an option, defeating the Danger wasn't an option. Self-destruction? If it destroyed the Danger, it would be worth it. Its mind set, it decided to do just that. Lumbering forward, it watched the Danger as best it could with one eye, the other destroyed in that brief skirmish.

Unit One smirked again, a dark, primal sound echoing from its vocal cords in a sick mimic of a chuckle, before it snapped into action. Rushing forward it waited until it reached within arm's reach of the creature, before flashing upwards and completely dodged the creatures arms as it tried to latch onto him. In a blink of an eye, Unit one descended from the sky right behind the Angel. Twirling around, it brought its fists to his chest, unfurling them somewhat until they formed knives, before his fists flashed forward, piercing through its back like a hot knife through butter and piercing the core. The Angel screamed, an unearthly thing that should never have been cast upon this earth.

And then the core erupted in a conflagration of red hot death as the energy within was unleashed.

* * *

Ritsuko watched the screen as it flash bright white, a huge detonation of purple energy in the form of a cross. It took a while, but the screen started to settle, the monstrous figure of Unit One standing on a hill overlooking the city in triumph was a bit over dramatic in her opinion, but she really couldn't fault the results.

"Communications restored." Maya reported.

Misato quickly hit the comms button, "Ranma?"

"Hey... Misato." he chuckled across the line, "I figured it out."

"Figured what out?" she asked. The boy sounded loose, relaxed, calm. Totally opposite of what she expected of anyone after brutally tearing apart the enemy.

"How these robo's run." a deep sigh, "Instinct."

"Oh..."

"Hey, pop there?"

"Yes he is..."

"Hey pop!"

Gendo frowned, pressing the comms button, "Ranma."

"Old man, tell those SEELE fuckers I'm workin` on figurin` out where they live!" he snapped angrily.

Gendo blinked.

Ritsuko blinked.

Fuyutsuki wondered how much hell that one sentence was going to cost the boy.


	4. They're coming to take me away!

With the subsequent Activation and Eradication of the Angel, Ritsuko found herself rather busy. While the less intellectually inclined would look at the entire event as either 'Cool', or a job well done, none of them knew just how much work the ten minutes of actually combat would bring to her, and her relatively small crew of underlings.

There was data to go over, questions to answer, reports to prepare and assemble. It was a daunting task, but not one she hated. This was the path she chose in life, that of the Scientist, and she did not regret making that choice. However, right now, questions had been asked about the Pilot of Unit One, Ikari Ranma, and it was her job to answer it.

Ritsuko lifted up a clipboard, flipping thru a few pages before frowning. It had been three days since Ranma defeated the Angel, and like all new employees of NERV he was required to take a Physical and Mental examination. That was where things started to get… bizarre. Muscle Mass was off the charts for what would be considered the norm for a fully grown adult male, much less a fourteen year old child, but highly compact. Bone density as hard as steel; hyper-active metabolism that would make anyone green with envy. He was in short fit as a fiddle and then some. She wasn't even willing to classify him as human anymore, but rather Meta-human, the next great step in human evolution.

While that was disconcerting, especially considering just who is father was, it was the least of her problems at the moment. Brain scans relayed problematic information of its own. Signs of recent Cranial trauma were present, but healing. At first she had theorized the damage itself had come from piloting the Eva, but examining the wounds themselves showed the healing process was already well under way, which meant the damage happened weeks ago.

And then there were his neural kinetics to explain, which were way above normal for an average human, and much to the Commanders aggravation, capable of rendering any and all current attempts to use chemicals to ascertain all of what he knew concerning SEELE and the EVANGELIONS a wasted effort. Standard interrogation process usually probed with simple questions to see how the subject was responding to the chemicals, but how Ranma managed to turn even the most innocuous statement into some insult was almost an art form. Fortunately for him the Commanders ignored it for the most part. It would take a lot to get under the Commanders' skins.

Such chemical resistance is only usually obtained from many many exposures. She doubted a fourteen year old boy would be able to get a hold of such exotic material, but somehow he was like your perfect spy, you couldn't just force the information out of him, he had to volunteer the information. All of this was just giving her a headache.

Gathering up her clip boards, she turned and headed for the elevator. She had a meeting to attend to.

* * *

"Diagnosis."

"He's in perfect health." Ritsuko explained, "Better than perfect, in fact."

"Yes..." Gendo spared the reports a look over, "I can see that. Explanations?"

"With so little data present, I couldn't even give you a hypothesis." she really didn't like that fact, but she just didn't know enough. "He's far too mature for his age, both in stature and physical prowess, DNA tests conclude that he is your son." She didn't bother listing anything else about the boy's past. She had read the reports, and much like Gendo trashed them all as doctored. There was just no way his son could be a shy, docile, and impressionable child one day, only to become outspoken, physically fit, and rather arrogant the next. "The matter of his true age is highly suspect, he's just too physically mature to even pass it off as a growth spurt, but that's circumstantial evidence at best."

Fuyutsuki frowned, "He's a security threat."

"Yes." Gendo sighed, "That goes without question. The question now isn't why he's so different, but what to do with him."

Ritsuko was quick to list some options, "We could quarantine him within NERV headquarters indefinitely, however, the problems this could cause would be numerous and damaging if things ever got out of hand."

"He could refuse to pilot the EVANGELIONS, " Fuyutsuki said as he shook his head tiredly, "Not to mention what he could do if he decided to get a little revenge while piloting them."

"I agree," Ritsuko agreed with a nod, "But if we don't quarantine him to the installation, we will need to find a place where he can be under constant surveillance, not necessarily with someone in the know, but with someone loyal to NERV."

Gendo frowned, "But who could be trusted with the boy?"

"I have a suggestion," Fuyutsuki spoke up, sparing Gendo a glance, before turning to Ritsuko, "Unless you've come up with one yourself?"

Ritsuko shrugged, "Not really."

"Captain Katsuragi."

Ritsuko blinked, deadpanning. "You can't be serious."

"And why not?" Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow, "Captain of NERV operations, her own mental evaluations classify her with an obsession against the Angels. She's loyal, and with her military back ground she's bound to attain a measure of control over him sooner or later."

Gendo remained silent, just listening.

"Are we even talking about the same Katsuragi?" Ritsuko snorted, rubbing her head tiredly. "Misato can barely take care of herself, and even that she does poorly. Unless your plan is to have a perpetually drunk Third Child, then I think we should consider other options."

"Dr. Akagi." Gendo looked up at the woman, seriously.

"Commander?"

"I'll let you decide where the child ends up. However..." He left a little warning, "If you fail to find a suitable guardian, you will be chosen by default. Is that understood?" he smirked inwardly at that, still maintaining his cold bastardness on the outside. If he knew the woman, and he'd like to think he did, she would go to any limits to make sure she did not get saddle with this responsibility.

Ritsuko sweat dropped. "I... see."

Fuyutsuki smirked.

* * *

This was a test, Ritsuko knew. Gendo trusted her, he had no choice but to in these types of things, but that didn't mean he couldn't make things difficult for her. Now she had to decide just who would suffer the boy's company. Her choices were rather limited, as most NERV employees weren't high enough in the pecking order to have access to the amount of classified information linked to all Pilots.

She quickly wrote out a list of people who did have such security clearance.

Makoto Hyuga, a 2nd Lt. and Bridge operator for NERV. Current duties were standard bridge operation as well as assisting Katsuragi with tactics and operations. He was a bit of a push over, however.

Aoba Shigeru, a 2nd Lt. and the NERV Bridge Operator for the NERV command staff, handles communications mainly. While serious about his work, his all-around personality was rather laid back in general. If Ranma were to stay with him, who would really be the Head of that household?

Maya Ibuki, another of the NERV Bridge Operators.

Ritsuko tapped her pen over that name for a moment as she thought about the girl. No, sending Ranma to live with her was a security threat in and of itself. The girl practically breathed logistics and information about the Evangelions and other classified projects.

She scratched that name off the list post haste.

Fuyutsu.. she quickly erased that from her list as well. She might as well put down Gendo. Though would be fun for the first 30 seconds if only to see his reaction. It's just after those 30 seconds that it wouldn't be fun.

Hesitantly, and against her better judgment, she wrote the name of her friend down. Misato Katsuragi.

"What a list of choices." she sighed, grabbing her cup of Java and taking a sip to calm her nerves. She hated to admit it, but Fuyutsuki's idea to stick the boy with Katsuragi was their best bet. Makoto and Aoba just weren't reliable enough to care for a child, at least, not as reliable as Misato herself was, and that was really saying something if you considered the Captain's personal habits.

* * *

Ranma was bored, really, really bored. Three days. Three damn days he was stuck in a lab like a rat. Tests, tests, and more tests. He swore, if he heard that damn word one more time he'd snap. He was definitely getting tired of needles when Gendo and Fuyutsuki were around. Those things just made him woozy for a few seconds. After that then they would ask a question, usually nonsense ones that he would reply in kind and then they would leave with a scowl on their face. Saotome Trading Insult Techniques weren't any fun if the target didn't respond back.

When he wasn't under the microscope, he was locked in his little 'cell'. Sure it wasn't a cell, just a simple room with a bed, facilities, and absolutely nothing to do but sleep, or hang yourself from the boredom. After three days of that, he had come to a decision.

Fuck this.

Slowly, carefully opening the door, he frowned at what the saw. The hallway was mostly empty, but there were two guards standing ramrod still on either side of the door that just begged to ruin his fun. Great. Just great. Man, and all he wanted to do was get out and take a walk! He was going nuts in here. He thought about it for a second, then shrugged as he opened the door and stepped out. "Heya!"

Both guards immediately turned to him, stepping in his way to bar his path, "You are not allowed to leave your room." one intoned, seriously.

"Ah..." Ranma rubbed the back of his neck, tiredly, "Come on guys. It's boring in there! Ain't nothin to do! And that weird guy on the TV keeps askin` questions like 'What have ya discovered about the Evas' and all that mumbo jumbo!" he added that last part a bit nervously.

The guards blinked, deadpanning. "What."

"I'm serious! It's getting annoying!

Both guards pushed passed the boy in a hurry as they entered the room. "Hey wait…" one guard stopped, "These rooms don't have TV's!"

"Suckers," they heard the boy chuckle darkly, before slamming the door shut and locking it from the outside.

Ranma whistled a cheerful little tune as he walked down the hall, taking a moment to deposit the clips he had 'lifted' off the guards, and out of their guns, as they passed by into the trash can. He could hear them banging on the door already, probably figured out he took all their bullets.

* * *

Misato yawned tiredly as she entered her friend's office. It had been a lazy three days for her, aside from reviewing combat reports and statistics concerning the battle with the first Angel, her days had been pretty tame. Running reports, conversing with other officers, dodging Makoto whenever he brought up the topic of the money she owed him for doing her laundry. All she wanted to do right now was grab her friend, pull her away from work, and go bar hopping. Honestly, Ritsuko really needed to get out more! All she did was work work work!

Ritsuko sighed, rubbing her temples tiredly. It was a tough choice in the end, but it basically came down to one deciding factor. Did she want to get stuck with Ranma Ikari as a roommate. It might not have been as bad as she was thinking, since she wasn't at home very often with all her work here, but she just didn't want to deal with the aggravation.

"Rit-su-ko!" Misato chirruped in her sing song voice.

'Speak of the Devil.' Ritsuko glanced back over her shoulder, leaning back in her chair. "Ah, Misato." she gave the woman a nod, grabbing a large folder from her desk and tossing it to the woman. "Good of you to come. I was suppose to give these to you this morning." she gazed at her lazily, "If you had bothered to show up, that is."

Misato sweated, nervously twiddling her thumbs. She didn't want to admit she got lost again today, her pride had taken a real beating the other day when Ranma had made fun of her about it. "Ah... was busy..." she lamely defended herself. She spared the folder a look over, desperately trying to find a means to change the conversation, "What's this?"

"Ranma Ikari's physical, and psych evaluations along with his residency papers." Ritusko turned back to her desk, grabbing another report from one of the huge stacks occupying her desk.

Misato opened the folder and leafed through a few pages before blinking. "What's this?"

"What's what?"

"Race: Meta-human?" the captain sounded flabbergasted.

"Ah, yes." Ritsuko shrugged, "Ranma's what we call 'The Next Step In Human Evolution'. Through a twist of fate, luck, good breeding and what have you; he's far superior physically to normal men. He may be as well mentally, but he's not very learned, so we aren't too terribly sure about that."

Misato gawked at the information. "Amazing!"

"Yes he is." Ritsuko allowed, before snapping her fingers and making a play at just remembering something, "Misato, would you mind terribly doing me a favor? I'm so busy here, I just haven't had time to do it."

"What's that?"

"Could you take Ranma to his residency? He doesn't know his way about Tokyo-3, and could use a little help getting accustomed to the change in venire."

Misato blinked, looking up at Ritsuko, "Why can't the Commander do it? Aren't they living together?"

"They aren't living together," Ritsuko shrugged, "It's not unexpected. The Commander did abandon him three years ago, the two just don't get along." Hook.

"That's so sad." Misato sighed, shaking her head. "How's Ranma taking it?"

"He doesn't care." the doctor shrugged, "It's his way of getting through life, I suppose. Just push everything away so it doesn't hurt you." Line.

Misato blinked, digesting that information. It hit eerily close to home, far too close for her tastes. She had done that for years after Second Impact, reverting to a creature that completely rejected human contact so she couldn't be hurt again. It just wasn't worth it in the end, pushing everyone away so they couldn't hurt you. "Kind of sad, isn't it?"

"It's the way things go, Misato." she sighed a little, "Just take him there, make sure he knows where he can buy food and wash his clothes, and leave him be. He's a tough kid, he should be fine." And sinker.

Misato got a little glint in her eye as she closed the folder, a devilish little smirk growing on her face. "Hey… Ritsuko.."

"Hmm?" she made a point of taking a sip of her coffee at that point.

"Why don't you let Ranma live with me?"

Ritsuko blinked, slowly moving back from her coffee as she looked at her friend as if she had grown a second head, "You can't be serious."

"Oh!" she stuck her tongue out at the doctor, "It can't be that big a deal!"

"Misato," The doctor sighed, tiredly, "You can barely take care of yourself, how can you ever expect to meet a child's needs?"

"You saying I can't take care of a kid like Ranma?" Misato scowled a bit.

"Now now." she waved her hands off to placate the girl, "I just want to make sure you know what you're getting into her! Taking care of another human being isn't easy!"

"We'll see about that," Misato snapped back, walking away as if she had a purpose.

"Misato!" Ritusko rolled her eyes, "Fine. If Ranma says yes, he can stay with you. Now are you satisfied?"

"Completely!" Misato chirruped, doing a little skip out of the office as she went. She'd show her she could take care of a kid like Ranma! Seriously, how hard could it be?

* * *

"Hey pop!" Ranma greeted cheerfully as he walked into the rather spacious office. He had gotten lost back there, really, really lost, and somehow ended up in the big dog's office.

Gendo gazed blankly across the room, doing an amiable job of keeping the compulsive urge to twitch under control. "Ranma."

Fuyutsuki whipped out a cell phone and made a call. This was going to cost someone their job, you could bet your ass on that.

The Third Child strutted across the room, hands in his pocket, making a mental note of everything. "Nice place ya got here," he said as he shot Gendo a glance, "So... how's tha` plans to take over tha` world going?"

Gendo frowned, "Everything is on schedule." he had been tempted to snap at the boy, but wasn't about to appear frayed by his sudden appearance. "Why are you bothering me?"

"Eh." he shrugged, "Bored, felt like it. Take your pick."

Gendo raised an eyebrow curiously at that.

"Hey!' Ranma snapped his fingers, "Where's this dead sea scroll thing? Always wondered what it looked like."

Gendo twitched despite himself.

Gendo had a lot of problems on his hands, but by far the most annoying as of yet had been his son. The boy was an enigma in the truest sense of the world, one that was giving such a headache. He knew about SEELE, which was problematic and no doubt going to cause him quite a bit of stress during their next meeting, but he could deal with it.

Just knowing about SEELE didn't mean much, except that he was well informed. However, now his son admitted to knowing about the Dead Sea scroll, which made the term problematic tame in comparison to the truth of the matter. If he knew about that, what else did he know about? What was he hoping to accomplish by revealing this little tidbit? He didn't know, but could surmise this would only cause him trouble in the future.

Thankfully the boy had admitted to this knowledge while in his office, a place where he did not allow camera's or microphones for the purpose of secrecy. The last thing he wanted to do was explain to SEELE how the boy knew even that much information.

No, the demented domino's need not know that little tidbit of information.

Leaning back in his chair, he tried to relax as he thought about the situation. His son might be at the top of his list of problems currently, but he was by far the least of his worries. He was here, within his realm of influence, and thus a measure of control was evident. His limp threat against the members of SEELE didn't concern him, after all what were the odds the boy could even gain enough information to carry thru with it?

Negligible as far as he was concerned, such information as their location certainly wasn't left lying around, nor was it present within NERV headquarters itself. No, the boy was the least of his concerns. He was certain of one thing; however, as his son left with Fuyutsuki and a contingent of guards he had started singing something that eerily enough made sense.

"Yui… our son's insane." he mumbled to himself.

* * *

"Remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and begged you not to leave because I'd go berserk?" Ranma chirruped in song, rather off key. "Well… you left me anyhow and then the days got worse and worse and now you see I've gone completely out of my mind."

Fuyutsuki twitched, a little unnerved by the boy's singing and maniacal laughter.

The four guards surrounding the boy on all sides just glanced at him nervously. They were only slightly relieved by the fact he wore a straitjacket, but for some reason they couldn't get the strange feeling of doom off their minds.

"And… they're coming to take me away, haha, they're coming to take me away, hoho, hehe, haha to the funny farm, were life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and their coming to take me away HAHA!"

Fuyutsuki couldn't wait to get this nutcase locked in his room. He made a mental note of suggesting electro-shock therapy to Dr. Akagi for the boy, he certainly needed some help.

* * *

It had taken her awhile, but after getting lost for twenty minutes before running in Maya and getting directions, she was nearing the end of her current journey. After leaving Ritsuko's office, her mind began to ponder just what she was doing, and whether or not this was a good idea in the first place. The kid was a lot like her, too much in fact, at least with the way they dealt with things. At least he hadn't reached the breaking point like she had and closed himself off from human contact, yet.

"Okay Misato." she turned the corner, looking up the long deserted hallway. She needed a plan, just coming out of the blue and saying he'll live with her was bound to fail, or at least she thought so. During the short time she had with the boy he seemed rather independent, if a little impulsive and uncaring of his actions, except for that brief, brief moment in the Evangelion where his rough exterior had melted and showed the nervous uncertain child beneath it all. It was nice to see, and further proved there was a nice boy in him just trying to get out. If it was the last thing she'd do, she swore right then she tried to bring that boy out to shine.

"… to the happy home, with trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes and their coming to take me away HAHA!"

Misato blinked as Fuyutsuki turned the corner with four guards huddling precariously close to the walls as someone she immediately recognized as Ranma in a straitjacket and singing rather badly. What the heck was going on now?

"Sir?"

Fuyutsuki looked up, glaring at the woman unintentionally. The boy had been really, really testing his patience with his singing. "Captain."

"Hey Misato!" the boy chirruped. "I'd wave but..." he motioned to the straight jacket, "Pop didn't wanna play much today."

Misato sighed, shaking her head ruefully. Don't let it get to you Katsuragi, this was just an obvious cry for attention. It had to be.

"If there's nothing you need, Captain..." the older man snapped, impatiently. He just wanted to throw this kid in a padded room and be done with it!

"Ah..." Misato smiled nervously, "I was... uh... just going to pick him up and take him home."

"Home?" Ranma blinked, before tearing the straight jacket off like it was nothing and handing it to a nearby guard, who just stood their gawking. "Fer yer information, I coulda done that at any point."

Fuyutsuki didn't dare let his happiness over the prospect of getting the kid out of headquarters sneak unto his face. "I see..." he intoned, darkly, before nodding. "Very well. See to it for the remainder of his time here he does not bother his father. The Commander is a busy man, and doesn't need silly interruptions."

"Yes sir." Misato had to wonder, even if only briefly, what the kid had done to get this type of treatment.

"Carry on." Fuyutsuki waved the woman off, turning around and dismissing the guards, who left the two standing in the hallway by themselves.

Ranma watched them leave with a happy little grin on his face, one that quickly faded away into a frown as they turned the corner. "Sour puss's." He gave Misato a glance, "Eh… thanks."

"For what?" The woman asked innocently.

"Gettin me outta that." he shrugged, "Didn't wanna go back in lock up." he lazily saluted the woman as he walked down the hallway.

"Ah." she grinned, skipping a bit to keep up with the boy, "But I didn't do it just to get you out of trouble."

He frowned, "What's that?"

Steeping in front of him with a brilliant smile, she chirruped, "I meant what I said! I'm going to take you home!"

Ranma sweated, her cheery attitude just throwing him a bit off guard. "Uh… yeah... whatever." he shrugged, covering his discomfort by acting apathetic, "My place all set up and ready ta go then?" there was a pliable sense of doom coming over him at that point, but he ignored it.

Misato smiled coyly, "Of course not!"

"What's the deal then?"

"Silly gus," she said while she flicked his nose, "You didn't think we'd allow a minor to live by himself, did you?"

"Rei Ayanami," Ranma deadpanned.

Misato suddenly tried to impersonate a fish. "Wha…how did you know about her?"

He sniffed in disdain, "Please. I ain't some type of kid ya could trick with that crap. I pay attention to stuff, y'know." he tilted his head to the side, smirking a little, "Didn't think I listened to ya talkin to the doc back before I got in the giant robo?"

"That's not what I meant!" she huffed, a little aggravated, "How did you know Rei lived alone?"

Ranma shrugged, "Didn't." before stepping around the woman and heading on his way.

Misato twitched. No way! He didn't just outsmart her... did he?! "Hey! I'm not done talking to you!"

* * *

There were few places in the world that Ranma would describe as paradise. It just so happened that this was one of them, and that was the Cafeteria. He shouldn't have been surprised to find it running twenty four seven, it was a military installation of sorts and they had to operate twenty four hours to keep a look out for the Angels or some such crap. He really didn't care about that though. Pushing his empty plate aside, he leaned back in his chair and sighed in content. Eating was an entirely different experience now that his pop wasn't around. Now he could enjoy everything from the texture, subtle mix of spices, and the sharp taste of salt. It was nice, he guessed.

Eyeing the woman sitting across from him, seemingly lost in thought as she stared at a closed folder with his name on it, he decided it was time to really consider what he knew was coming. In the main line, Misato had taken Shinji and given him a home, along with a dysfunctional family. She meant well, she really did as far as he could remember, even if things didn't end on all that great of note in the Anime.

The question was, should he follow that route? The only real con he could see to it was the fact it had failed in the main line, but again that was with Shinji and not him. The pro's were numerous. A place to stay where he wouldn't get lonely, to think about the future and what he could do to change it. Misato left Shinji alone for the most part, if he remembered, only really bothering him when something important came up.

The possibility he'd get stuck living with Asuka was another con, now that he thought about it. Well, maybe he could avoid that? After all, she had only gone to live with Shinji and Misato in the mainline due to that one Angel they couldn't beat. Hmm... could he beat them? Even without the timing training they had put Asuka and Shinji through?

He didn't know. Frowning, he gave the decision some more thought, before figuring what the hell. At the very least he wouldn't get lonely, a fact he was going to be very grateful for. One thing he never had to deal with growing up with Genma, and then later with his time in Nerima, was being alone. There was always someone around, even if he never appreciated them all that much. The last three days, being stuck in that little room with nothing to do, and no one to talk to, had been a pure torture to him.

"Alright Misato." He grumped, leaning up on the table.

Misato blinked, coming out of her little daze, "What was that?"

"You followed me all tha way here, waited till I ate, figure I owe ya enough to listen ta what ya want."

"Heh." she crossed her fingers in her lap, "I just wanted to take you home."

"Right." he drawled a little, "And ya didn't answer my question."

"Hehe.. was hoping you'd forget it," she chuckled, a little nervous, "Rei... she's a special case and prefers to live alone. Technically the Commander's her guardian in that respect, and he doesn't see anything wrong with it."

"Alright." he eyed the woman weirdly, "And what does all this an` me have ta do with you?"

"Well, as Tactical Officer the pilot's health is my direct concern." she replied, quickly following up with, "And I just didn't like the idea of you living by yourself."

"O-kay." he grunted, "Where do ya suggest I live then?"

"Why, with me of course!" She chirruped.

Ranma made a point of musing over it. Hmm'ing every few seconds, as if he was really thinking it over. Finally he shrugged, "Sure."

"I know it's sudden, but it really wouldn't be a bother. I have so much room at my place I don't know what to do with it!" she explained hurriedly.

Ranma rolled his eyes. The woman hadn't even listened to him.

* * *

The silent ride home was an agonizing ordeal for him. Misato was silent, almost distant in her attention, and he couldn't understand just why she was that way. She certainly seemed open and carefree in the Anime. He scolded himself mentally then, this wasn't the Anime, it was the Manga, doubtlessly things were going to be different. Still, it was unsettling, and not for the first time he wondered if agreeing to live with the woman had been a mistake. He sat there, lost in thought as he stared out the window, seeing the quickly passing terrain of lights and stars, but not really seeing them at the same time. He really needed some time to think about everything.

Misato for herself was embroiled in a dilemma. Sure was glad the boy had agreed to stay with her, though a little unnerved with how easy it had been to convince him, but who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth? It wasn't till they actually got in the car she really, truly realized how difficult this was going to be. Ranma was a special kid, and no doubt had special needs. Just how much would he eat? What kind of quirks did he have? Did he play video games to relax, board games, computer games? Would she need to buy anything right then for the kid? This wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.

"Y'know." Ranma softly intoned, still staring out the window.

"Hmm?" shifting gears, she slowed down a bit as they neared a red light.

"We don't gotta be like this, y'know."

"Like what?" she glanced at him while bringing the car to a stop.

"All silent an` stuff." he grumped, "Ya ain't still angry at me over that thing with yer friend?"

"Ah…" she racked her mind, trying to remember what he was talking about. Failing to remember, she figured that whatever it was, she wasn't mad about it. "No, I'm not mad."

"'kay." he sighed, leaning back in his seat and stretching a little. He spared the light a look, cool still red. "Ah right, wanna do this the right way?"

"How's that?"

"Hi!" Ranma grinned, holding out his hand, "I'm Ranma, wanna be friends?"

Misato blinked, eyes tracking down to the offered hand. Friendship? Is that what he was looking for? Wait, wasn't she the guardian? She felt like slamming her head against the steering wheel. Idiot Misato! Who ever said a guardian couldn't be friends with their wards? Besides, she was glad he took the first step to warm things up between them, the relief of knowing he was willing to give her a shot was greatly appreciated. Tentatively taking the hand, she grinned as he shook it, "Misato Katsuragi. Nice to meet you."

* * *

Aoba wasn't into gossip, at least, not as much as the NERV staff composed of the fairer sex, but from time to time he liked to indulge. It was great for two things, getting a laugh, and mingling with the soldiers. Besides, most of the gossip was of the harmless variety, like who's dating who and other small things.

No one liked to talk about their job in these gossip circles, everyone far too aware of their own mortality and depressed by it at the same time. Still, it allowed him to make friends, maybe even come upon that chance encounter where a girl he might enjoy as more than a friend would appear.

He missed a note, "What was that?"

Yajiro a Private with the security force chuckled, "I tell you, it's the truth."

Setting his guitar aside, Aoba tried to make sense of it all. "You're telling me the Commanders son tricked Kyo and Kenji, locked them in his room, and then went for a pleasure cruise through the installation until he ran into his father?"

"Heh." the security officer nodded, sipping his drink as he tried to relax. "Ikari was so pissed, I thought he'd blow up. Especially when the kid started singing that weird song."

Aoba frowned. "What song was it?"

"I don't know," the man shrugged, "It was weird, something about their coming to take him away 'haha'," he chuckled. "Kid's a riot."

"I bet." he grabbed his guitar, slinging it over his shoulder. "I'm heading home. Take care, Yajiro."

"See ya."

* * *

Makoto grinned, a manic thing that sent Maya running for the hills at the first sight of it. Years! It had taken him years to find even a hint of his prize. After hours of bartering, days of waiting with baited breath for his dream to come true, it had finally come in. It was only a matter of time now until he held his golden treasure firmly in his greasy little palms. There could be no stopping him now! You hear that! NOTHING! BUAHAHAHA!

On his computer screen, the message "You purchase has been accepted. Please review Ebay policy in regards to shipping and handling. Thank you."

"SHINJI 1/2! YOU ARE MINE! BUAHAHAHAHA" Finding any issue of that elusive Manga was a trial in and of itself, having been manufactured pre-impact, most of the copies were scattered about the world. Makoto felt like a Pokemon trainer when it came to these things, he just had to catch them all.

Maya shivered, hiding behind another console. There was one thing in this world scarier then an Angel, and that was Makoto going on another tirade about his manga addiction. Last time he was like this, she had gotten stuck listening for four hours about some silly little comic called Argento Sama. Never again, she swore to herself.

* * *

Ranma felt a little nervous as Misato opened the door to her Condo. Not that he was nervous of the place itself, he was rather looking forward to getting his own room for a change, but the memories of everything that took place in here in the original line was rearing up and giving him problems. Relax Saotome! he chided himself, mentally. It's a place to sleep, ain't nothin bad gonna happen less you let it.

"Well, here we are." Misato turned around, that cheery little smile on her face. "Welcome home, Ranma."

"Heh." he slid past the woman standing in the door way, making damn sure not to get too close to her. One thing he had realized quickly after coming to this world that while it had giant robo's, assured death at nearly every corner, and a maniacal madman trying to take over the world to bring back his wife, it didn't have fiancee's. He was free of that fate. Poor Shinji. he chuckled, mentally, Better him then me.

Last thing he wanted, even if it was only a remote possibility, was to get mixed up in a relationship with any of the girls here. "Nice place you..." he blinked as he came into the living room. Trash everywhere, empty bottles of alcohol lining the walls like silent sentinels left to keep watch, the table so packed with beer cans you couldn't even see its surface. In short, it's just how he expected it would be.

"... had before ya moved in," he deadpanned.

"Oooh!" Misato rolled her eyes, "Don't start with me like that, bucko." she flipped the rest of the lights on, setting her purse down on a chair, "We need to talk..."

Ranma gazed at her with a half lidded glare, "I ain't the kid's father."

Misato blinked, before snorting at the crude joke. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Hehe." he smiled cheerfully, "Least ya can take a joke."

"Haha, very funny." she rolled her eyes, "I'm going to change," she finished saying as she shut the door to her room.

"Heh," he said while shaking his head, tentatively sneaking around the mountains of garbage as he made his way to the fridge. Pulling one side open, he deadpanned again, "Junk food." The other side wasn't much better. "Gallons of beer," he hmmed, scratching his chin. "The breakfast of champions all right." He grabbed three beers, he returned to the living room and cleared the end of the table of crap, before setting the beers down across from where he slid in a seat. He figured it would help break the ice with the woman.

Ten minutes later, Ranma glared balefully at her door. What the hell was wrong with women? Was it some unwritten law they had to take forever to get dressed?! It's not like she had to pretty herself up on his account. He sighed, shaking his head. Things were getting boring again, and he was finding it a little difficult to just sit there. He didn't know how long the woman had lived here, but aside from some furniture, a couch, table, a few chairs here and there, she really didn't have all that much in terms of furniture, and absolutely no electronics to speak of. No TV, no VCR, nothing.

"Duh Ranma." he grunted, "All her cash goes ta beer and more beer." He glanced at the mountain of empty bottles surrounding the majority of the room in disdain. How the hell could that woman drink so much?! Didn't she realize that crap destroyed yer body? What good was drinkin gonna do ya anyway? Sure you'd feel good now, but years down the road you'd get all sorts of problem...s…. He blinked. Pfeh! Years down the road?! It makes perfect sense! He sighed, shaking his head tiredly. It ain't like they had years left anyway, life was gonna be short, why not live it up? So thinking, he grabbed one of Misato's beers and popped the top. Raising his drink to his MIA guardian, he slammed it back, hard.

* * *

Misato stared at herself in the mirror, balefully. She had come to realize just how comfortable she was already feeling with the kid in her house. The problem was that while he was a fourteen year old, he didn't look like it. If he looked like his age then she doubted she'd be having problems figuring out what the wear, but as it was he didn't, and that knowledge was bothering her.

At first she had decided to wear what she always did around the house, a pair of short shorts and a tank top. Good ole relaxing clothes. His comment about 'kids' had really drove home the fact he knew, at least from what she was seeing, about sex. She was an attractive woman, a fact she flaunted on occasion for a few kicks, but at the moment it left her feeling vulnerable, especially when you added in the knowledge of his physical capabilities.

Shaking those thoughts off, she gritted her teeth, "He's just a kid, he's just a kid, he's just a kid." Satisfied she had buried any nervousness she felt, spared one last look in the mirror, before heading to the living room. Her clothing would be good to gauge the kid's reaction to such things. If it was over the top, well, she'd need to look into getting more concealing clothes for home wear. Opening the door, she gave him a nod as she went to the kitchen. A few beers would help calm her frazzled nerves.

She frowned then when she noticed quite a few beers were missing, seven by her count. Trying to remember if she had taken some and simply forgot, she eventually just shrugged it off. It's not like the kid took them, even she couldn't drink seven beers in the time it took her to figure out what to wear. Getting back to the living room, she slid into her seat, almost immediately noticing the three unopened cans of beer nearby. "Ranma?"

"Yeah?" his tone seemed more subdued, more calm, and he seemed to be staring into space a little, but at least he wasn't staring at her, so that was a good thing in her book.

"How'd these get here?" she motioned to the beer.

Blinking, he raised his head and stared at the beer for a second, before shrugging, "Figure'd ya'd like em and didn't wanna have to get up while were talkin` to get more." he took a sip of his beer, shrugging, "This stuff ain't all that bad."

Misato gawked, before scowling, "Ranma! Put that down! You're not old enough to drink!"

Ranma gave her a half lidded glare, "I'm old enough ta kill an` risk my life, why not drink?"

"Because I said so!" Misato hesitated a little before saying that. There was something eerily right about his words, and yet horribly wrong at the same time. She had almost forgotten the kid had a morbid outlook on life.

Ranma debated for a second about snubbing the woman and continuing to drink, but decided he rather not. 'sides, he already had four beers, and was feeling pretty good at the moment. "If ya say so," he quietly said and pushed the beer away. No sense pissin her off yet, he thought ruefully. "Whatcha wanna talk about?"

Misato smirked, feeling a little better now that he had done what she said. Maybe this could work out? "Chores."

Ranma rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Paper! Rock! Scissors!"

...

"Well gee, looks like I win again?" Ranma stared at his rock versus Misato's scissors, taking careful consideration not to smirk wickedly at the woman's horrible horrible 'luck'. It took him a little to get use to the game, so he had started off getting thrashed by the woman, but quickly picked up on the tricks of the game.

It was mainly a game of luck, as far as he figured, at least to anyone else it was. To him, it was like practicing hand-eye ordination. Follow her hand, watch it descend and take the form of what she chose to battle with, and then quickly change your own answer to the winning hand. Just a matter of speed, really.

Misato simmered, staring at the list of chores she was going to end up with. Aside from Cooking dinner Monday, cleaning the house and taking out the trash Tuesday, she had to do EVERYTHING else! No fair! "This… isn't... possible..." she said slowly through gritted teeth.

"Ah, don't be a sour puss," Ranma chuckled, scratching the back of his head, still relaxed from the beer. "I ain't gonna be mean about it, I'll help ya out… sometimes." Maybe, he added mentally, ignoring Misato's hung expression of despair.

* * *

Ranma couldn't take it anymore. Not five minutes had passed since they finished their little 'game', and the woman was already trying to wiggle her way out of it. He didn't really mind helping her, if she'd ask and not try and demand it, but the way she was going now he'd probably end up snapping at her before too long.

"So you see, with work, commanding NERV operations, shopping, bar hopping..." the woman prattled off.

"You keep talkin`," he sighed as he got up from the table and walked away. He turned back briefly and snapped, "I'm gonna take a bath."

"… it just isn't possible for me to do ALL these chores…," Misato blinked as the boy shut the door to the restroom, effectively ending the conversation. She sighed, lifting up her beer for a chug. Did I say something wrong? She wondered about that for a time. She realized it was a bit 'dishonorable' to try and weasel her way out of the chores, maybe that's why he was upset? She mused over that.

* * *

Ranma hung the occupied sign on the door handle before closing the door, glad to be away from the talkative woman. Does she ever shut up? He sighed, mentally as he pulled his shirt off. It was different from what he was used to, anyway. Coming from a place where the majority of most his conversations began with 'Ranma' and ended with 'die', well, it was a little odd to find someone who insisted on flapping her lips over the most mundane things.

He realized one thing though, and it made him feel like a total heel. Kasumi had never complained about the work load she was forced to endure, never once lost that smile of hers that could both sooth and calm the raging emotions of the rest of the house hold. How had she put up with it? Heck, she had to take care of seven people, and here they only had themselves.

"Squawk."

He eyed the furo with a little smirk. He hadn't seen the little bird yet, and was kinda wondering what it would be like to meet the comic relief of the series. He looked happy, soaking in the warm waters with a towel neatly folded over its head, steam rising and condensing a bit in the air, keeping the half of his body not submerged fresh and wet.

Slipping his pants and shoes off, he made a mental note to get some new threads. He had been stuck wearing Shinji's get up for the last few days, and had come to the realization button up shirts and pressed pants just weren't him. Wish Mihoshi woulda let me keep what I was wearing.

He stopped himself then, shaking his head. Wishing for crap you can't change isn't gonna help, Saotome. Just take all this one step at a time. Sitting on the stool, her gazed over the assorted soaps and lathers. Cherry, Jasmine, Lime. He shrugged, picked one out at random and set it aside as hit turned the cold water on and began filling the basin.

"Afta three days, I prolly reek, don't I?" he commented, glancing at the penguin, who just ignored him and sank deeper into the tub. He had the opportunity to wash at NERV, but the little problem with his curse had stopped him. What would they do once they found out about that? If three days of testing just for his guy side was bad, he didn't want to imagine the hell he'd come into once they figured out he could turn into a girl. Nope, better just to try and avoid that.

Turning the water off, he picked up the basin, carefully balancing the container as he lifted it over head. "Don't blink now," he chuckled, winking at the little bird, before dumping the cold water over his head.

...

...

...

Penpen just stared at the curious little human.

...

...

...

Ranma tentatively reached down and touched his chest. "Wha… no..." the feel of it, the texture, and the lack of any protruding objects had left him stunned. "I'ma… guy?" reaching down and grabbing his flaccid warrior, he gave it an assuring squeeze. "I'ma… guy?!" his voice was a little more panicked, before he started chuckling madly, "YATTA! NEVA GONNA BE A GIRL AGAIN! NEVA GONNA BE A GIRL AGAIN!"

Penpen blinked, watching the human jump from his seat and go running for the door butt naked. He just sighed, sinking deeper into the warm water. Humans were so weird.

* * *

Misato may like to indulge in serious drinking at times, enough to where normal people would generally be left wallowing in a pool of their own vomit, and that wasn't to mean she didn't ever go that far in her drinking, just not often. However, she was also a soldier, one who understood her duty as the children's Commanding Officer very, very clear.

Hearing her latest charge scream, but not hearing the words itself, she leapt out of her seat without a second thought. "RANMA!" Slamming the door open, she rushed head first into the unknown, prepared to kick all ass to protect the child.

Ranma jumped around as happy as a kite, kicking his heels together in midair as he danced around the room, "YATTA! YATTA! NEVA AGAIN!"

Misato was also a woman who had quickly, especially in light of what she was seeing, come to the conclusion that even though he was a child, even if he didn't really look like a fourteen year old, he was still a beef cake. Rolling abdominals, chiseled chest, defined arms and legs, a generous... Maybe having him live with her was a bad idea after all?

If Ranma gave a spit about his state of dress, he certainly didn't show it. Hopping around like a Mexican jumping bean, he eventually came to a stop in front of the woman, who had just stood their frozen. "Misato!" he chirruped, far too happy for any type of modesty as he grabbed the woman up into a twirling hug, "YA KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!"

"Bad thoughts... very bad thoughts." Misato meeped.

"No!" he dropped her, the stunned woman falling to the ground on her butt, dazed. "It means I'm NEVA! GONNA! BE! A..." he blinked, suddenly realizing that

A. Misato had no clue about his curse.

B. He was naked, and had just assaulted the woman, even if he hadn't meant to.

C. She was staring a little too far to the south with a raging blush, a silly grin, and a nervous twitch in her eye.

He coughed. "It means… ya can get out now," he deadpanned, before diving for the furo, Penpen crying in outrage as the resulting splash threw him out of the warm waters. He raised one flipper threateningly, almost as if he was flipping the guy off.

* * *

Ranma had enjoyed his bath, took to it with a zeal he couldn't ever remember having. Just the fact his curse didn't seem to work anymore had left him giddy and as high as a kite. Why, he didn't even blush when he came out and caught Misato staring at him still red in the face. Well, maybe that was because of the beer, but he didn't care to ask. He had already embarrassed the woman enough for two life times.

* * *

There were some things Ranma loved, and some things he hated. For instance, he hated school, but he loved to eat. He hated the concept of fiancées, but he'd love to sleep. Sadly, as he turned restless in his bed, he realized he was far too excited to do what he truly loved in life. The knowledge, the truth of no longer having a curse left him giddy, unable to relax. There was just something so… so… wild about never turning into a girl again that had him restless.

Frowning, he stared at the ceiling, deep in thought. If he couldn't sleep, then he better get to work on something he had been trying to ignore since he got here. He was a martial artist first and foremost, it was his life, the very air he breathed, it was the end all, be all, of who he was. He was also a boy through one stupid means or another that had been thrown into a fucked up series where if he did nothing the world could very well end, and even if he did something it could still end up going that route. His only saving grace, as far as he was concerned, was his knowledge of the series.

He had seen all the Anime, including the movies, for the series. Which wouldn't really help him as much as he hoped. Sure, it would give him the basics, but not all the real details he could use. Manga to Anime transfers tended to take things to the extreme, or so he figured when he had compared Yu-Gi-Oh to the crappy cartoon, and they tended to leave a lot of things out.

The problem he had, really, was that he didn't really get to read the Evangelion Manga all that much, at least not to completion, so the differences between the Anime and the Manga were going to become obvious before too long. He just wished he knew what those differences were, as it was he was going to end up stumbling around in the dark.

He shook that off. He'd deal with it when it came up, right now he needed to think about what he did know, and come up with ways he could influence the ending to his own ends. Gendo Ikari was insane, he had no doubts of that, the dork was trying to bring back his long dead wife and he didn't care whose life he had to step on to get it. Fuyutsuki, well, that guy was kinda a mystery as far as he could remember, but he at least knew the guy was loyal to Gendo, which sucked.

He rubbed his forehead, tiredly. There was Ritsuko, the doc. She was pivotal, at least as far as he could remember, to how this story had ended the first time thru. Even with the changes being made with him here, he doubt her role in the end was going to be any less important then what it had been in the main line. Dummy plug, Magi, Evangelions, she had a hand in the operation of all of them. She was friends with Misato and that Kaji guy, mother was a brainiac who had warmed Gendo's bed before killin herself, devoted to her work above all else. Gah… he was gonna need to think of something when it came to her.

Misato... well… she's Misato.

Asuka… well, she was a melodrama waiting to happen. Inferiority complex, covers it up by all the bullshit she causes, lonely, fearful, a lot like himself in some regards. He wouldn't have even noticed that about the girl if it wasn't for Hiroshi and Daisuke explaining it to him, and even they wouldn't have figured it out of Yuka and Sayuri hadn't told them. It made sense, sorta, and he just knew she was going to cause him a lot of headaches when she got here.

Rei. He frowned then, turning on his side. In all the excitement, he had nearly forgotten about the girl. In the main line she would have met Shinji by now, wouldn't she? Hmm. She was a half Angel, clone of Shinji's mother with some all powerful soul or some crap. Withdrawn, quiet, completely under Gendo's thumb. She was also pivotal in some way with how things turned out, but he wasn't sure just how she was pivotal.

Kaji... just thinking about the guy was getting him good and mad. A double agent, the bastard's loyalties lie with no one but his own. He even brought the key Gendo needed to control third impact too him in the form of Adam. Never had a single Anime character pissed him off more than this guy did. Sure, in the end he sided with the good guys, but he had already done far too much damage for him to even see that as a redeeming quality. There was going to be some serious problems between the two of them when he showed, he knew that much for sure.

He sighed, scratching his head tiredly. "Man... why am I tha` only one with a chance of stoppin` this crap? Can't people ever call Super Man? Wazzat bout dem Power Rangers?" he grumped, climbing out of bed. He just wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

* * *

Misato was very grateful Ranma had decided to go to bed, very grateful in fact. After taking a long cold shower, she had settled into the furo to just relax a bit herself before bed. Laying there, surrounded by the warm waters, her mind had begun to wander to her newest house guest. Questions, questions, and more questions were circulating in her head. Questions she didn't have a clue about how to answer, and a hefty dose of confusion with what had happened earlier tonight. The boy had screamed, she had rushed in thinking he was in danger only to discover he wasn't, but in fact jumping around like a rabbit on cocaine, grabbed her, flashed her, and then told her to get out.

Confusion just wasn't a strong enough word.

Picking up her cell phone, she placed a call. She better not be asleep, damn it.

* * *

"How's the Harmonics diagnostics coming along, Maya?" Ritsuko sipped her coffee, examining the Sync-graph from the first battle.

Maya yawned tiredly, gazing bleary-eyed at the monitor, "Nothing seems wrong. There shouldn't have been any fluctuations, I can't understand it."

"Don't let it get to you." the older woman said with a smile. "You shouldn't work yourself to death over that. We're not dealing with an exact science, not when it comes to the Eva's."

Maya rubbed her forehead, tiredly, "Suppose your right, as always sempai."

Ritusko hmmed, nodding knowingly, "I suppose I am."

Maya stuck her tongue out at the older woman in response to that, before grabbing her empty cup. "Getting coffee. You want anything?"

"No, thank you." she waved the younger woman off. It wasn't long after Maya had left the office that her phone began to ring. Fishing the little cell phone out of her pocket, she spared the caller ID a glance, before flipping it open. "Calling so late? I figured you'd be asleep by now, Misato."

"Are you sure he's 14?" was the very first question out of her friend's mouth.

Ritsuko couldn't stop herself from twitching. That wasn't a question she had been expecting so soon after taking the boy in. "Ah... out of morbid curiosity, why do you ask?"

"Just answer the question!" the other woman snapped, a little anger evident.

"Well." she abandoned the reports she had been reviewing, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. "That depends. Are you asking me as a scientist, or as a woman?"

"Either! Both!"

"No, he's not fourteen."

"I didn't think so either." Misato sounded a little depressed about that, which concerned the older woman a little. "How old do you think he is?"

"Well, his birth certificate lists him as being fourteen," Ritsuko explained, idly sipping her coffee, "I don't have any hard evidence to dispute that, but with his looks, his body, and everything else I'd guess he'd be around eighteen, twenty at the oldest."

"But how can he pilot the Eva's if he's so old?"

"Ah, that's another hole in the theory," Ritsuko clucked her tongue, "No doubt about that, I can't really give you any kind of explanation as to that. Every fiber of my being as a scientist rails against the possibility he's that young, but I don't have any solid evidence to support it."

She sighed, "I see."

"Now," Ritsuko grinned a little, glancing to the door just in case Maya decided to come back, "What brought this line of questioning up? And don't hang up on me, I know where you live." she warned, playfully.

"Ah... it's a little embarrassing."

If she thought that was going to deter her from wanting to know, she was dead wrong. If anything, she wanted to know more now than ever. "Spill it."

"Well..." and she told her.

* * *

Ranma quietly closed the door to his room, sparing the bathroom a glance. The light was on, and he could hear Misato's voice on the other side. He idly wondered who she was talking too, but quickly shook off his curiosity. It wasn't his business, he had enough with people poking their noses where they didn't belong back in Nerima, he wasn't about to start mimicking them now.

Carefully stumbling around in the dark, he made his way to the veranda. Once again as quite as he could slid the door shut. Looking over the edge, he spare the distance to the street a once over, before hopping up on the railing and leaping down, jumping off other rails like a bouncing ball until he reached the street.

He cracked his neck a bit, to get the tension out. I'll just work off all this energy. Few hours of a good long work out should be enough to tire me out. So putting though to action, he stretched out a little bit, then leapt into a Kata.

* * *

Misato raised her feet, setting them on the side of the furo. She was starting to get pruney from bathing so long, but it was a welcome relief to explain everything that had happened to her friend. At least she knew one thing for certain, even if she couldn't prove it, Ranma wasn't fourteen. That just raised more questions than it answered, and was seriously starting to give her a headache.

"And then he told me to get out," she finished her story with a splash of her free hand.

"I see," she could just see her friend now, the little twitch in her eye going full force. She was silent for a few moments, which was a little odd to Misato, her friend usually being quick witted and fast on responses. "Do whatever you want to do."

Misato blinked, "What?"

"We both know, even if we can't prove it, that he's not fourteen, right?"

"Right." She didn't like were this was going.

"So do whatever you want to do."

"What is that suppose to mean?" she sighed, exasperated.

"Misato." her friend began, quietly, "I'm not going to judge you for your tastes in lovers, and even if he is fourteen he's still technically of legal age, especially if you as his guardian give him permission. Have fun, do whatever you want to do."

"Wh.. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?!" she yelled, louder then she wanted to, but the shock of her friend even suggesting something like that was overwhelming.

"Just that. With the constant threat of Angels and the possibility of death, who knows how long we have left in the world?" she sighed a little, continuing, "Just live for the moment, is all I'm implying."

Misato didn't like what she was hearing, not one bit. The memory of the incident with the beer and Ranma's own reactions to it crawled up and slapped her in the face. Even he recognized the fact they could all die in a moment's notice, it was galling to hear her own friend say that. "I... think I'm going to bed."

"Hey, don't feel so bad," Ritsuko chirruped, "You aren't the only one who's given him a look over. I caught Maya staring at a picture with his shirt off..." a rather loud rustle blared into her ear, followed by a, "SEMPAI! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!" before Ritsuko came back on, "Gotta go! See you tomorrow!" and the line was cut.

Misato glared at the phone as if it had just clubbed a baby seal.

* * *

Ritsuko waved her hands to ward off the woman, "Joke! Just a joke Maya!"

"That was mean!" Maya sighed, resting her head on the table.

"Hehe...," Ritsuko laughed a little, turning back to her reports and playing at actually looking them over as she thought about her conversation with Misato. She didn't like it, or even agree with half the crap she had said to her friend.

However she had realized that as a scientist and one of the few 'in the know', that Ranma was a rogue when it came to their plans. He had knowledge, but to what extent they didn't know. He was a pilot whose back ground they didn't really have an inkling of, and an obvious security threat. However, he was also a young man and had to deal with all those wonderful hormones a young man his age had to. Misato was a perfectly beautiful woman, and loyal to NERV.

That was where things would get problematic at best. If Misato somehow succumbs to her base desires, the possibility she grew emotionally attached to him would be a bad, bad thing. Especially if he told her anything really damaging. Still, there was a risk to take in everything, as Gendo had often agreed with her on. She figured their odds were about 50/50 at this point. All she could do was wait and see what happened.

Ritsuko sighed. Life was getting complicated, and she was sure she wasn't going to like it.

* * *

Nabiki rubbed her head as she lay down on the bed. She was mentally exhausted, which she suspected would be a common state for her in the foreseeable future. The first thing after the blond ditz of a genie left that she wanted to test was the curse. Shinji obviously didn't want to, but a little logic from her got the better of his curiosity. It was rather anticlimactic though. There was more drama in him removing his shirt. Yes she took a picture, if only to see if they would sell as well as Ranma-kun's photos. Also, in no way was she tempted to profit from pictures of a cursed Shinji. Yeah, one day she might be able to convince herself of that too if she kept repeating it.

So there they were both all keyed up in anticipation and the splash of water resulted in… nothing. Shinji did say he felt something touch him, a tickling in his hair that went down to his spine and then went away. Nabiki figured it must be the curse not getting a hold of him. She wondered if Ranma still had the curse or was it stuck somewhere in between worlds now.

A wet blushing Shinji had asked her if she had to support the household with her schemes when she took another photo. She patiently explained that the she didn't make THAT much money and that her father had a job on the city council. Also, they rented out the dojo for events to help make ends meet. Except for the money she spent on snacks, film, and the occasional outfit, most of the money was hoarded away. Yeah she was a bit of a miser and should invest or put it in a bank or something, but it just made her feel good to see the money there.

Shinji got dried and dress while she mentally fortified herself to inform the family the truth of what happened. Okay, so most of that was her struggling NOT to charge them for the information. Hey she was trying to turn over a new leaf, but it was more like pulling out roots to her. No sooner had the newest member of the household followed her down the stairs, the unexpected occurred. Well in this household getting splashed by a panda was fairly common, but still. Genma held up a sign that said, 'Your Mom is here!' Of course the sign flipped over questioning about the lack of red hair, and other feminine attributes went ignored by Shinji has he tentatively replied back to Auntie Nodoka's call for her son. Apparently Auntie was once again fervently looking for her son. This was the first time they've seen her since that whole Ryu Kumon pretending to be her son incident and there definitely a hint of desperation and melancholy in her voice as she called for Shinji

The reunion was as emotional as she had imagined it would be and even got by her icy façade. She still got misty eyed thinking about it. Not that she was going to compete with her father in the waterworks department, but it was close. Shinji later admitted that while he knew that this wasn't his birth mother. It was the mother he had in this universe and all of those repressed emotions just came pouring out.

Nabiki admitted to herself that old habits die hard and couldn't help herself when the question came up about Shinji's manliness. She just happened to mention the big stud had recently received a photo from a gorgeous older woman who had 'checks these out' and a big circle around her generous chest. Nabiki immediately realized that saying that near her young sister was a mistake.

Akane demanded to know why Shinji had that photo while Nodoka celebrated with victory fans around the room. Shinji stammered out that he needed it to call the lady's number on the back which started Auntie on a rousing rendition of the grandchildren song. Akane's reactions was predictable, but not her own. Nabiki STILL didn't know what came over her. One moment Akane was bringing her mallet with all the force her rage could generate and next Nabiki had pushed Shinji out of the way.

She saw her life flash before her eyes and it really says something about one's life when you keep repeating that you should have charged more for that. By the grace of Kami-sama, or other benevolent deity, the mallet missed her by mere inches. Between her youngest sister's rage and her own terse reply that she didn't have him a problem with Shinji calling this mystery woman ended with Akane giving her the engagement, again.

Seriously this was getting old, but Nabiki accepted partially out of obligation, but mostly because she knew that Shinji would not be able to survive a week of being engaged to her violent insecure sister. Which, more importantly, would damn herself for all eternity.

Genma showed up in his human form and let's just say that this reunion was more nauseating, if only from all the self-praise and back patting that went on. Nabiki knew she had to intervene when the question came up about the training trip. She spun a tale of how Shinji had just defeated a curse, but at a terrible price. She glibly explained that this is Shinji if he had never gone on a ten year training trip. He remembers most of everything since arriving in Nerima, but not much before that. No training trip and no curse. Genma was forced to show his curse to his wife, and Auntie Nodoka was left with the impression that Shinji had also turned into a panda, a notion that nobody choose to correct.

The next couple of days after that were very trying on Shinji as the fathers decided to retrain him all over again. At first, Genma attempted to train him using tried and true methods of the past. Needless to say insulting a boy with already low esteem didn't really get great results, just a lot of apologies which took the wind out of the old panda's sail.

Her father then tried treating him like a newly minted white belt to which her new fiancé responded much better to. Akane, at first, assumed that Shinji was making fun of her when messing up the katas their fathers told her to show him, but after a while she calmed down enough to do so properly. Nabiki couldn't get over how nostalgic it felt to hear her father calling out commands in the dojo again. That was a much happier time that she really didn't want to dwell on at the moment.

Nabiki suddenly realized that the chances of HER surviving tomorrow would be very slim as they had school. There was no selfless martial artist to save her this time. Quickly thinking, she went down to the kitchen where a new tradition had started. Shinji somehow convinced Auntie that he wanted to spend more time with her, which stopped any protest from Genma, and so for the past few days Kasumi, Auntie and Shinji cooked the evening meal together.

With a little bit a prodding she was able to get Shinji to admit that Kasumi would make a great wife. Oddly enough, this prompted Kasumi to say that Shinji would make a wonderful husband. Pouncing on the moment, she then tried to hand the engagement to her older sister. Shinji looked hurt, but she quickly whispered that she didn't hate him, but the last time she took over the engagement the fiancées attempted to stick very pointing things in her and Kasumi would be the safest choice. Nobody in Nerima would dare harm Kasumi. He recalled the episode and emphatically agreed that he would not be able to take knives to the head like Ranma.

Nabiki mused that her gambit had only been partially successful. Auntie Nodoka intervened and declared that now both she and Kasumi were engaged to Shinji until he decided a bride (and a mistress). Really Auntie?! She was pretty sure she could spin this to the rivals that if any harm came to her that Kasumi would immediately be wed to Shinji. So now Akane is the only Tendo daughter who was not engaged to anyone. How weird was that?


	5. Daily Trials

The blared klaxon of her alarm slowly drug her back to her senses, the subtle ache over her mind beat in tune with the annoying reminder to raise like an insidious enemy who had joined forces with the baleful machine designed to rend her from the wonderful bliss of oblivion. It was the light of all things that first caught her attention, slender rays of luminescence slithered through the blinds; softly pressed it's brightness into her sensitive eyes.

Misato passed her fingers through her hair, her mind lifted from the fog of fatigue as she stared at the roof. She had seen a lot of it recently, ever since she had moved here, the old picture of a cold beer tacked up to the ceiling brought a smile to her lips. She sat up from her bed, the sheets falling from her chest to rest in her lap as she stretched her arms overhead, "Mmmm." She sighed happily, contentment settled over as she lowered her arms. Her clock continued its cruel reminder that she couldn't stay here and enjoy herself. She had to rise and meet the challenges the day held for her. Her mood soured a little at that as she leaned over and switched it off.

Tentatively she threw the blankets off, a shiver traveled up her legs, tiny goose bumps prickled across her skin as a cold air swept in. "Ooh!" she shivered, "Cold." Rubbing her arms for warmth, she rose to her feet, tentatively tiptoed across her messy room. She stopped as she caught sight of a plain vanilla folder laid haphazardly by the door, some of its contents spilled out just enough for her to recognize what it was and to remind her of all that had happened yesterday.

She knelt down, grabbed the top sheet and stared at the picture pressed against the top left corner. Her roommate, a young man with bushy long hair pulled back into a pigtail. His hair reminded her of something familiar, but the remembrance slipped through the fingers. With a shake of her head, she stuffed the photograph back into the folder before moving it to the side; she had to get ready for work. 'Hope Ranma isn't using the shower' she thought as she pulled her door open and started in surprise at the sight that greeted her.

"What the..." Her living room was clean. Every spot of trash had been gathered up into white trash bags and set to the side. Not a beer can or liquor bottle in sight.

"Morning, Misato," he gruffed, voice raspy and fatigued. His voice caught her attention, purple eyes traced across the room to where a figure sat at the table.

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?" he grunted, rubbing his eye lids with one hand. "Somethin` wrong?"

"Oh...," she shook her head, tresses of purple falling in front of her face, served as a reminder she had to get into the shower if she wanted to get to work on time, "No, just... it was my turn to clean, wasn't it?"

"Heh," he breathed, shoulders rose in response. "Couldn't sleep, y'know, too excited." He gazed at her, his piercing blue eyes unfocused and a little red. "You ain't complainin `bout me helpin, are ya?" he teased, a small smile growing on his lips.

"No no!" she shook her head quickly. She was grateful he had decided to help, and didn't want him to think she wasn't. She replied with a gentle sigh, "Thank you."

He waved her thanks off as he pushed the chair back and tiredly stood up. "I'm gonna go shoppin`, wondered if ya needed anything` before I go?"

"No." She walked around the living room and admired the job her new roommate had managed to accomplish. "I need to get ready for work," she finally said with a smile. Tilting her head, "The place looks wonderful, you did a good job."

"Glad ya like it," he grunted a bit, patting down his pockets before nodding. "I cooked up some miso soup and rice for breakfast. Soup's on the stove, rice in the warmer." He pointed to the kitchen, and then motioned to a small container propped up on the table. Ranma waved as he left the condo with a tired "Bye."

"Bye," she mumbled after he had shut the door and weakly waved despite him already being gone. She shook her head, "Well… least he's thoughtful." She spared the clock overlooking the living room a glance and was startled at the time. "Oh! I'm going to be late!" she yelled while running to the bathroom.

* * *

Ranma sighed as he stared at the long line of people between him and check-out, aggravation born from his fatigue settled on him. He sighed and shook his head tiredly. He had been so excited after discovering his curse had been lifted that not even hours of working out had tired him. Rather, his body was tired, but his mind felt like a live wire. Now though, he just wanted to get home and sleep for a month.

"Excuse me," a tired, if insistent voice pierced the haze of his mind. He noticed a familiar woman slowly weaved through the huge line to reach him. Her hair was short, if a little unkempt, alabaster skin framed in a heart shape face with thin eyebrows and thinner lips. She was slender, a fact framed nicely in her tight NERV Uniform, only her top had a few buttons undone giving clear view to her simple undershirt. "Ranma, right?"

He blinked and rubbed his eyes again. "'scuse me?"

"I'm sorry, we've never really met before, have we," she said with a slight smile. She pressed her hand to her chest, "I'm one of the Bridge Operators for NERV."

"Oh...," he absently replied with a nod. So that's where he knew her from. "Uh, fancy meetin` ya here."

She looked up, and winced just a little from the overhead lights, as she spoke, "I come here all the time, it's the only place in town that still sells Pochy." she held up a rather large box of the candy sticks, "Didn't expect to see you here, but since I did, I thought I'd introduce myself."

"Uh, yeah," he slowly held out his hand, "Sao… um …Ikari Ranma."

"Ibuki, Maya," she gently took his hand and gave it a soft shake before letting go. She noticed the redness in his eyes, how they would droop closed every now and then before snapping awake. "Rough night?"

"Sorta," he grunted, rubbing his eyes again. "Didn't get much sleep, too much happenin` at once." he spared her a quick glance, "You?"

"Sempai and I worked late, I didn't get out till just an hour ago," she finished in a yawn, tiredly shaking her head.

Moving up in the line, he tilted his head curiously, "Sempai?"

"Ah," she blushed a little, "Sorry! I meant Dr. Akagi."

"Akagi.. oh!" he replied with a snap of his fingers, "Ritsuko. I get ya. She's a nice lady."

There was a sense of uneasiness in the atmosphere, and he was reluctant to say anything to lessen it. Awkward silence reigned between them as the line moved closer to the cashier. As tired as he was, Ranma was content to just let the rest of their time together go that way.

* * *

Ranma shut the door to his room, happy there was nothing present to disturb the lonely oppressive silence of the condo. Tossing his bags to the side he lumbered to the bed, shoes being kicked off and socks removed before his shirt and pants met with the same fate. A brief chill settled over him, clad only in a muscle shirt and boxers, but it was a relaxing chill, one that seemed to sooth the tension from his tired mind. Crawling under the covers, he laid there a moment, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts wandered for a time.

"Blue," he mumbled as oblivion took his tired mind to the land of dreams.

* * *

Misato grinned, crossing her arms and stood tall as she overlooked the Bridge and all the busy bodies under her command. It was an invigorating and slightly maniacal look she held. "They left me in charge?"

Ritsuko looked up and rolled her eyes. "Don't let it get to your head. The commanders had some business to take care of. They'll be back before we know it."

"Until then," she primped and ran her fingers through her hair, tilting it to the side. She snapped her fingers and chirruped, "Get me some coffee!"

The doctor rolled her eyes, shaking her head sadly as Makoto practically leapt from his station to do as ordered. She wondered if Misato knew just how far she had her subordinate wrapped around her little finger. "That's childish."

"Yep!" her friend grinned, falling into the commander's chair, the soft leather hugging her body comfortable. She frowned a bit at that, a sense of jealousy rising up within as she suddenly realized that she needed this in her life. Would the commander notice if she switched chairs?

"Well...," Ritsuko clucked her tongue, tossing a portfolio up on top the Commanders podium. "Speaking of children, here's the Third Child's school transcript. He can begin school as early as tomorrow."

She thumbed through the document, only briefly reading the relevant information. "Thanks." she snapped her fingers then, "Ritsuko! Back rub!"

* * *

Blood. It tasted like blood. A warm coppery taste that wrapped around his tongue before delved into his throat. All around him black skies rumbled and arcs of lightning barely penetrated the darkness. He could feel the beast within the machine, a raw animalism that traveled through the cold metal surrounded by living flesh directly into him. It was alive. It was awake.

Surrounded by the soup of life, Ranma watched as the end of all humanity would be decided by his own hands. The 05 series had latched on to his energy wings, pulled him to the heavens where the final conflict would take place. Not a conflict of fists or mettle, but one of mind and soul. Soon, he knew, soon Lilith would come, and it would mark the END.

* * *

Misato peeked through a small crack in the door, purple eyes tracking the line of discarded clothes to the slumbering boy huddled protectively under the blankets and sheets. Easing her way in, she spared a glance at the white bags near the door as she passed them to stand next to him. He looked peaceful in sleep, his glare and frowns not present to mar the childlike innocence of the peacefully slumbering. It was almost a shame to have to wake him like this. Tentatively leaning down, she touched his shoulder, the bare skin warmed her hand as she shook him. "Ranma, time to wake up."

Blue eyes flared open, unfocused, lost. She almost fell back from that look, but quickly found his hand wrapped around her own, the one touching his person, her balance lost as he pulled her forward harshly. In moments she found herself in a headlock, the flat end of his hand pressed against the side of her head. "Ranma!" she hissed and struggled fruitlessly against the strong arm that had captured her.

Panting breath, she could feel his body tensing beneath her own, an eternal moment of confused danger, helplessly held, she saw his hold on her relax subtly, voice harsh and raspy from long disuse but filled with confusion reached her ears, "Misato?"

Pulling against the arm that held her pinned to his chest, she snapped in heated anger, "Let me go!"

He did just that, allowing the woman to slide to the ground before bringing herself back up to face him, one hand held against her neck where he had held her, "What's wrong with you! You attacked me!"

"I...," he sighed while shaking his head. "Bad dream, ya startled me." He looked up from the bed, meeting her purple eyes with his own blue. "Sorry, didn't mean ta scare you," he said subdued, though sincere.

"Whatever," she scowled while she leaned down to recover the dropped folder. "Here! School transcript! You start tomorrow." She tossed it in his lap then stomped out the door, anger clear and evident, as she slammed it shut.

He watched her go a little sadly. He hadn't meant to scare her, or hurt her. He sighed as he picked up the little folder and gathered the loose papers. "School...," he mumbled as closed the little folder and set it aside. He was still too tired to deal with anything.

* * *

Misato pressed her hand against her chest and cursed herself for getting so worked up like that. He had startled her, scared her when he had grabbed hold of her like that. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, tension easing out of her with the act.

"Squawk!"

She stiffened at the sound, eyes tracking to its owner. "Penpen," she sighed while mentally berating herself for getting scared like that. "Jumpy, jumpy."

Penpen spared his owner a curious look, head tilted to the side in quiet contemplation. She certainly wasn't acting normal. Perhaps a hug to cheer her up? So thinking, he wobbled over and wrapped his flippers along one slender leg. "Squawk!"

"Awww." Misato chirruped as she leaned down and picked up the little bird. "You saw mommy and thought she needed a hug? That's sooo sweet," she gushed while she crushed him to her chest and feeling infinitely better by the act.

Penpen was glad his owner felt better, but he'd feel better if she'd let him breath!

* * *

Ranma had thought today was going to be a good day, already he had risen before the dawn and got in a few good hours of working out to wake up his mind and body, and you couldn't really ask for a better start to a day then that. It beat waking up dripping wet or at the receiving end of a kick to the face. He didn't even dwell on why everybody thought there was no other way to wake him up; he was in too good of spirits to dampen his mood just right now.

He walked into the apartment and, well, that was pretty much when he realized something had changed between him and his roommate. She stumbled out of her bedroom in her usual attire, unkempt, hardly awake and scratching herself in places he'd much rather not have seen. It was when her eyes tracked over him he felt something… tense in the air.

The way her body jerked upwards, even if only subtly, the clenched jaw and the way she quickly looked away from him as if he carried the plague, all this just screamed that something had come up between the two of them, and it had her tense. He sighed despondently as she quickly entered the shower, but he was slightly grateful the tension had left with her.

"I do somethin wrong?" He thought about it as he pulled out some vegetables, slowly cutting them into neat slices. He had apologized for what happened last night, hadn't he? Maybe she was upset about something else? He didn't know her well but, the Captain didn't seem the type to hide something when she was uncomfortable, at least that's what he figured from what he knew of her. She was wild, like a free spirit with her emotions and thoughts. She had impressed at least that much on him from watching her drink.

He slid the cut vegetables into a pot and turned the heat on to low. Ranma shook his thoughts away from his superior officer as he focused on more important matters. "First day of school, first time I'm gonna get ta meet Rei." He was nervous about that meeting. Everything he knew of the girl spoke of someone he wouldn't normally get along with.

She was reclusive, almost mechanical in her dealings with others, but he supposed it really shouldn't have surprised him. Growing up like she did, and with Gendo of all people as he role model, how could he expect anything less? The man was cold, unfeeling, more of a machine then even Rei was. He was sure of one thing, though, she was important to how everything came to an end, probably the most important person in Gendo's plan for Third Impact.

He opened the fridge while the vegetables simmered and pulled out a large pot. After setting it to the side, he reached up in the cupboards and retrieved two bowls. Cold miso soup with some vegetable add ons wasn't the best for breakfast, but he figured Misato wouldn't mind. She'd probably get a snack or something to eat at work, anyway. After he filled the bowls, he grabbed the pan with the sizzling vegetables before adding them into the broth.

Ranma slid into his chair at the table and set a cold beer by Misato's bowl, before digging into his own meager breakfast. A slight chill swept across his bare chest, but he ignored it as he focused his thoughts inward. "What kind of girl is Rei, anyway?" He wished he knew more about her. This wasn't going to be easy.

Misato came out of her room dressed in her short black dress with red coat, idly passing a hair brush through her hair as she sat down at the table. "Don't forget we have training this afternoon, Ranma."

Ranma looked up from his bowl. He had been so lost in thought about the First Child he hadn't even noticed the other woman come into the room, but now that he had, he could feel that tension between them was back. She refused to look at him directly, focusing instead on the sparse breakfast. "Eh… Misato."

"What is it?" she said before she sipped her soup, the salty and succulent taste of the miso mixed with vegetables calmed her a little.

"Sorry," he said simply as he set his bowl aside before getting up. "`bout yesterday, I didn't mean ta hurt ya."

Misato blinked as she looked up at him, "Hurt me?"

"Eer...," Now that she was looking at him, he wished she wasn't. That tension he had felt earlier had vanished for a brief moment as she looked up from the soup, but it had returned, and with a vengeance, as soon as their eyes met. "I didn't mean ta scare ya like that."

"Forget about it," she smiled, though a little forced. "You better hurry up and change, you have school today, you know."

"Yer right," he smiled ever so slightly.

As soon as the door closed to the bathroom, Misato slumped down on the table. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" she banged her head on the table with each self-recrimination.

* * *

"I see," the teacher said with a nod as he looked over the papers and saw all was in order. He turned to the class and said, "Class, today we've received a new student," he then pushed the boy forward a little, "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?"

Ranma hadn't felt this nervous since the failed wedding. His breath caught in his throat as all eyes save one turned towards him and blinked, the single eye that hadn't turned to greet him stared out the window unresponsive to the world around her.

"Ah...," he winced a little at how his voice cracked under the attention of the others. "My name's Ikari Ranma, I'm...eer... fourteen, and practice martial arts," he quickly finished and bowed a little, trying to ignore the murmurs that passed through the class at his introduction.

He couldn't quite hear the words being spoken, but the looks of disbelief from both the guys and the girls had him on edge, though he guessed he could understand it. It's not every day you see a fourteen year old boy who looked a heck of a lot older. "I, uh, just moved here, kinda spent most of my life out in tha` wilderness trainin`."

"Mr. Ikari," the teacher nodded, apparently satisfied with his introduction as he examined his seating chart. "We only have four seats open currently, take you pick and have a seat so we can begin class."

Ranma didn't even hesitate as he moved to the far side of the room near the windows, taking a seat behind the one girl who still hadn't deigned to acknowledge his presence. There was an almost pliable aura of… coldness about her, a rude fact he had been kinda expecting from the quiet first child. Perhaps it was his own knowledge that the world's existence depended on this small girl, but he was sure it something more. The anime had music to accent the coolness of her character, but it paled in comparison to actually be this close to her.

"Very well, let us begin class," the teacher coughed out and scrawled out on the board the words 'Second Impact' in big, bold letters. "In the year 2000..."

Ranma spared the man little attention at that point, glancing at the other students in class as they busily typed away at their computer consoles. Tentatively he opened up his own computer, briefly gazed blankly at the empty screen, and closed the article with a frown. Nabiki was the only person he knew personally that ever used a computer, and even that was only sparingly, the girl much rather preferred to hand write her notes and files. He took a deep sigh, laid his head down and followed in the tradition of all Saotomes in school, he fell asleep.

* * *

Horaki Hikari spared glances at the new boy during the lecture, marveled at how old he looked, and the gall he had to fall asleep in class. As the class representative she often had to do things she didn't really like doing, but knew they had to be done. The boy would probably need a lot of her direct attention to get caught up with the teacher's lesson plan. He had said he had spent most of his time training, no doubt with his atrocious speech he had fallen behind in his studies. She smiled then. It also helped that for a boy their age, he as physically mature and really really cute, like Toji in a strange way.

Thinking of Toji brought a frown to her face as she glanced over his empty desk. She had been a little worried when he hadn't shown up after that last attack, but the teachers assured her he was fine. Here was another task, as the class rep, she would need to perform. Toji was going to need some catching up as well, probably requiring long hours of tutoring late into the night.

Her smile was all the brighter after that thought.

* * *

The sound of desks scraping roughly against the floor tore him from his dreams. "Huh? Wazzat."

"Mr. Ikari," a terse, if friendly voice called his name. Looking to the side, he found a rather pretty girl in the traditional blue school uniform with her hair done up in pigtails staring right at him.

"Uh…," he blinked and looked towards Rei's desk. Everyone else in class had left except for him, Rei, and this other girl. Rei just seemed to keep staring out into space. "Yeah?"

"I'm Horaki Hikari, the Class representative." she smiled sweetly, which unnerved him a little.

"Yeah... nice ta meetcha," he looked around the empty class, "What's goin` on, where's everyone?"

"It's lunch time, Ikari-san," she explained.

"Oh," he replied, spared a glance at Rei, before turning back to the girl. "So uh... hi? What's up?"

"I take it you've just moved to Tokyo-3?" At his nod, her smile widened even more, "then I'm afraid I'm required to give you a tour of the school, it's part of my job as Class Representative." She crossed her fingers behind her back. 'Please buy that, please buy that, please buy that'.

Ranma sighed a little, but nodded. "If we gotta, we gotta," he stood up from his desk, "Let's go then, class rep."

Hikari smiled even wider as she turned around and walked to the door. Ranma failed to see the girl pump her arm in triumph as called back, "This way Ikari-san, I'll show you to the cafeteria first."

"Cool," he grunted. He waved at Rei as he passed by, "See ya later, Rei." The girl only glanced at him in response to her name being called, before turning back to look out the window.

* * *

"…and this is the lab." Hikari glanced at the boy. He hadn't seemed all that interested in the tour, at least beyond the cafeteria, but she was glad he at least made an effort to listen to her. "It's were Tokagauwa-sensei brings us when we have projects to work on. Be mindful of the hazard warnings, we wouldn't want to get blown up, would we?"

She didn't know if he appreciated all her efforts here, but was glad he didn't out right tell her no. She wouldn't tell anyone, but the looks the girls shot her while passing through the cafeteria really fed her ego a little bit. There was just something about having an older looking boy, especially one as healthy looking as this one, following her around that just gave her goose bumps. The boys just stared strangely, but that wasn't anything unusual.

"I guess," the boy shrugged, following after her with his hands in his pockets.

He really wished he could get away from all this. When they passed through the cafeteria something had left him feeling unguarded and paranoid, like something had been watching his every move; looking for some type of weakness they could exploit. It reminded him far too much of his time in Nerima, but it wasn't quite up there in comparison.

"Well, that's the end of the tour," she said with a clap and spared the overhead clock a glance, "We still have 15 minutes until lunch is over, more than enough time to talk about what you need to catch up on."

"Ah...," Ranma grimaced. He really, really wanted to talk to Rei. The girl was trying to be helpful, he knew, so it didn't seem right to just cut her off right then. "Look, I know yer tryin` to be helpful, and I'm grateful for it, but can we do this later? I got something` I need ta do."

Hikari tilted her head, smiling, but he even he could tell she was disappointed by the way her shoulders drooped a little. "Oh, I see. Maybe later? I could stop by your home tomorrow and help tutor you?" she blurted out with a cute small blush, but continued undeterred, "If you don't mind, that is."

"Uh... nah, um, that'll be fine." he tentatively offered, instant relief settled over him as her happy smile returned.

"Alright, it's a date…, "she blushed again, "Study! I meant it's a study date then," she stammered out, quickly backing down the hall, "I'll see you then!"

"Right," Ranma grunted, oblivious to the girl's blushes and the reason for it, he turned back to the class room... Rei was still there, eating tentatively from a small bento. Just watching her eat with her one good hand had him wincing internally.

She seemed so quiet, so removed… detached from everything and everyone around her. He was sure you could track the exact time between her picking up a piece of food, bringing it to her mouth, and chewing in a perfectly timed sequence. It was a little unnerving, but he swept that thought aside as he walked up to her desk.

"Heya Rei!" he smiled cheerfully, "How ya feelin`?"

Rei continued to eat at her controlled pace, not even looking in his direction.

"Hey, uh, I'm Ikari Ranma, wanna be friends?" he sweated a little bit, holding out his hand to the girl. Not for the first time he wished he knew how to do this type of thing.

"Why?" the girl set her chop sticks down and focused on him with her one good eye, the other still buried under the bandages from her earlier accident with Unit 00's activation. Her voice was soft, devoid of any emotion. It was almost cold, analytical sounding, but he hadn't really been expecting anything more.

'Man, don't choke now boy! Say something!' He ran his fingers through his hair, a little nervous smile growing in his lips. "Just cause, uh, y'know.." 'Man! What the heck can I say to that?!' "... I think we could both use one?" he mumbled, a little lamely.

"I do not need a friend," Rei responded evenly and started to clean up her now empty bento.

"Well... uh... I do?"

"If friends were needed, the commander would have one assigned to us." She set her bento aside and turned back to the window as the bell signaled the end of lunch. He sighed as she effectively ended the conversation by staring out the window. He'd really need to think more about this.

* * *

"Why did the commander issue the extra security?" Misato stared at the tall stone faced men standing guard by the main entrance, their red berets denoting them as part of the Security. She had noticed them when she first came in, but thought nothing of it. Taking lunch out in the city with her friend today, they had come back and found them still standing there. It was weird, and she aimed to get to the bottom of it.

Ritsuko spared them little mind as she swiped her card, the large gates opening up for her. "The commanders orders, I'm afraid."

"Okay…but why?" the captain swiped her own card, following after her friend as the gates began to lower behind them. She couldn't think of anything that would require guards to be stationed by the entrances.

"The Third Child upset him with that last stunt," the doctor sighed, "He's ordered his every move from entrance to exit to be under guard." She didn't have to mention how the commander perceived his son, after that last little joke word had spread like wild fire.

"Oh..." Misato tensed a little, but said nothing more.

Ritusko was a rather observant person, a perk of her trade. That wasn't to say she was always watching out for things, because frankly she couldn't do that and stay sane. You needed to relax every once and awhile, else the stress of everyday life and work would get to be too much.

A breakdown was only an obvious consequence if you weren't careful. It still didn't stop her from noticing how tense and nervous Misato would act whenever she mentioned the Third Child, especially since most of their work these last few weeks revolved around him and his first battle with the Angel.

"I'll see you later, Misato," she waved her friend off, stepping in an elevator. "Don't forget, Ranma has training this afternoon."

"No matter how much I want to," the captain sulked a bit, moving down the hall.

Ritsuko watched her go with a frown. What was bothering her friend? It couldn't be that little thing from the other night; Misato hadn't seemed this bad when she came into work yesterday. She thought about it for a second, and then shrugged as the elevator doors closed, "I'm sure it's nothing."

* * *

Nabiki returned back from school with Shinji in companionable silence. The day was full of surprises and both were enjoying the simply walk. Actually the start of the day was unsurprising. She had to go over some potential scenarios for the day with Shinji and the whispering put Akane's temper on a slow simmer during breakfast. She shared a look with Shinji when little sister left early in a huff. It was going to be scenario one.

Next surprise happened when getting her school supplies. Her stock of Ranma pictures turned into Shinji, but the pictures of Ranma's cursed form still remained. She didn't even want to contemplate what that would do to Tatewaki's already fragile psyche if he woke that morning to find Shinji's photos all over his room. Nabiki knew that this was only a temporary reprieve and it was only a matter of time before he comes around asking for the 'pig tailed goddess'.

When they arrived at school they both saw that scenario one had indeed occurred. Akane had already spread the word of the changed engagement. Tatewaki showed up on time and promised to hold a double wedding was not a surprise. The delusional lad stated that he was willing to cover the charges for couple counseling for herself and Shinji WAS a surprise. Surprised that he even knew what counseling was, considering how desperately he needed it himself. Could it all be a sham and he's not as stupid as he acts. Nah.

Shinji timidly asked Tatewaki if he was planning a double wedding then had he already asked Akane to marry him. The older boy replied he had not, but he was certain that the inevitable would occur. Nabiki had to point out that he had yet to have a date with Akane. How was he to know if they were compatible at all? He quickly turned to Akane, got down on one knee, and asked her for a date. She responded with a swing of her school case to the head.

"That hurt," he replied while still in the kneeling position.

Akane, breathing hard, spat out, "Why do you always ask me out no matter how mad I get or how many times I hit you?" His response was as sappy and saccharine as one might expect from him. Something along the lines of she was perfect to him and he loves her because of her fierce nature. Typical response, but Akane somehow reigned in her temper and tersely asked despite her being a tomboy.

He immediately took affront, "Let no one tell you otherwise. You are the pinnacle of feminine grace!" She thought about it for a minute and agreed to one date. Nabiki thought the school shook too its very foundations (probably knocked down a palm trees or two down there in the basement) with the power of everyone's face fault.

After that class was almost unbearable. Partially, because whenever the teacher asked a question Tatewaki would raise his hand, and answer with a love haiku, but mostly because was nobody wanted to pay to hear her engagement story. This was bad as she needed to get certain information out, but Akane's upcoming date was the talk of the school.

Nabiki quickly stage whispered to the nearest girl that she knew why Akane accepted the date and was willing to give a deep discount as her little sister was in a delicate state. That got a few willing to part with a few yen. First, she conveyed the juicy gossip that focused on Shinji stringing along two eldest Tendo daughters. Next, the devoted sisterly pact that was made; where if one sister should come to harm then the surviving fiancée Tendo daughter would be immediately wed to the stud. Lastly, how that drove Akane into desperately wanting a date.

At lunch showed how effective the rumor mill was. Shinji had overheard a version that Nabiki and Kasumi were subtly at each other's throats. She sighed, nothing like the threat of underhanded homicide to spice up a good rumor. She knew that she had her work cut out for her in order to spin a counter to that nasty rumor.

As they ate their lunch Shinji had another question. He took a sip from his thermos cup and frowned as he said,

"I'm not sure if it's a good thing for Akane to have that date. There were a few guys who said that most of the time rebound relationship didn't end well for anyone. I don't think it's healthy for her." He then blinked as she emptied the rest of the roll in the camera with him like that.

Nabiki couldn't resist and started giggling. At his confused glance she replied that these were going to be part of her "'Shinji does not approve' album." She told him that she'd explain it later as the giggle was threatening to grow to a full blown laughter session.

Her mirth was cut short as a spatula knife slammed into the ground between her and Shinji. She deftly unrolled the paper which read 'Shinji rental fee' and the 3000 yen that was neatly tied around the weapon. Nabiki looked up and sighed as Ukyo approached with her signature spatula slung across her back.

The encounter actually went much better then she could have planned. As in there was no violence or injury to any concerned party. As one of the very much concerned party she was quite grateful. They led Ukyo to behind the gym storage shed, where she made triple sure that nobody was around, and had Shinji do the explaining. She figured the chef would listen to him better than her.

Shinji explained that due to the wish that he was not the same guy she was engaged to. He had wanted to tell her the complete truth, but the way Ukyo was grabbing onto her baker peel was not good. Nabiki was forced to use the signal, which they had agreed upon earlier that morning, for Shinji to use the cover story about the wish curing the curse at the cost of 10 years of training. She tapped the side of her head three times when Ukyo wasn't looking at her.

Shinji went silent for a moment then started, stutteringly, the preplanned explanation. She was about to take over for him, but something firmed in his mind. He shook his head and went off script and told Ukyo that he was switched with somebody else.

"A real martial artist and who name is …" The chef stopped him saying that it didn't matter. She followed her heart and her heart told her that the man in front of her was the love of her life. He teared up quite a bit at that. Shinji apologized saying the she didn't really know the real him. Ukyo replied back that she was willing to relearn all about the new him. Nabiki had pocketed the rental fee and left the two talking as they all returned to the school yard.

After school, Shinji said that he had agreed to help out occasional at Ucchan's. Their fathers' weren't going to be happy about that cutting into their Anything Goes retraining, but Nabiki was sure that she could get Auntie Nodoka to back him up on getting to spend time with his other fiancées. First day had gone pretty good. Any day with profit always put her mood firmly in the black, in the accounting sense of the term.

"Shinji Saotome prepare to die!" Both of them stiffened at that cry and Nabiki morbidly thought that the day might be in the red in more ways than one.


End file.
